Saville to consider use of witness intelligence files today

The Bloody Sunday inquiry will today consider calls for intelligence summaries about civilian witnesses to be admitted to the…

The Bloody Sunday inquiry will today consider calls for intelligence summaries about civilian witnesses to be admitted to the tribunal.

Two days have been set aside for hearings on the subject, which sparked a row last week, with some witnesses refusing to testify.

Lawyers acting for troops who opened fire on Bloody Sunday are believed to be behind the request for MI5 and Ministry of Defence material about witnesses to be collated and handed over to the inquiry.

A fictitious sample summary circulated to legal teams at the Guildhall in Derry includes sightings of the "target'' talking to alleged IRA members and attending the annual Bloody Sunday commemoration march.

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One witness, Mr Seán Collins, has already brought in lawyers to relay his concerns about the implications of the proposal. He and other witnesses with similar feelings have been excused from testifying until the matter is resolved.

Tribunal chairman, Lord Saville of Newdigate, has insisted that the issue is still under consideration and maintained that there would never be any question of "springing'' what witnesses regard as scurrilous allegations about them in public.

However Sinn Féin's Mr Martin McGuinness - who has admitted to the inquiry being the Provisional IRA's second-in-command in the city on Bloody Sunday - has said he believes the move is an attempt to divert the focus of the inquiry on to the people of Derry.

PA