DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley will be held in contempt if he does not appear before the Bloody Sunday Inquiry in Derry at 9.30 a.m. tomorrow, tribunal chairman Lord Saville said today.
Dr Paisley was summoned to attend the tribunal into the civil rights march in Derry in January 1972 when 13 civilians were shot dead to explain why a counter demonstration he had planned had been called off.
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But Mr Christopher Clarke QC, counsel for the inquiry, confirmed today that Mr Paisley would not be at the inquiry because of "parliamentary business".
He said correspondence with the DUP leader's solicitors had warned: "Unless and until the tribunal adjourns the witness summons, he runs the risk of being found in contempt of the tribunal if he fails to appear as required".
Dr Paisley was due to take the witness box today despite what Mr Clarke described as difficulties in securing his attendance at the city's Guildhall.
He was to have been asked about events in January 1972, when he gave notice that his Democratic Unionist Association was to hold a rally outside the Guildhall in Derry - at the same time that the civil rights march was due to parade to that point. The Paisley demonstration never materialised.
A huge security operation was mounted in the city and the civil rights march was prevented from proceeding to the Guildhall.
Mr Paisley had been called to explain if any assurances had been given, and if so by whom, which led him to call off his counter-demonstration.
But his lawyers told the inquiry that other business meant he would not be able to attend. They said: "In any event, we would repeat our submission that Dr Paisley's attendance is entirely unnecessary and inappropriate, given that he has responded to the queries posed with the dossier of documentation supplied".
Mr Paisley's son, Mr Ian Paisley Jr, said his father was disappointed about alleged leaks to the press. "The credibility of the tribunal is now in tatters and he would not want to be part of something whose credibility is now in tatters," he said.
"He won't be wasting his time in Londonderry today, he had far more important, pressing parliamentary duties".
PA