Several hundred soldiers who were in Derry on Bloody Sunday will have to return to the city to give evidence at the Saville inquiry, the tribunal has concluded.
The ruling was made yesterday on whether the soldiers, who had sought to give their evidence in London, should be required to appear at the Guildhall in Derry, where the tribunal is sitting.
Among those who will have to give evidence are the soldiers who are believed to have fired the shots killing 13 people at a civil rights march in the city in January 1972.
The soldiers, who have been guaranteed anonymity, had argued the security arrangement in Derry would not be adequate to protect their safety.
In a statement yesterday, the tribunal said: "In light of the information presently available to us, we consider that none of the arguments put forward by those acting on behalf of the soldiers is sufficient to provide a compelling reason for not hearing the oral evidence of the soldiers at the Guildhall, which we regard as the proper place for this inquiry. We accordingly rule that this is where that evidence should be given."
Mr Greg McCartney, the solicitor acting on behalf of the family of Mr James Wray, said his clients were "very happy" with the ruling. "Very happy but not surprised. This is the only correct ruling that there could have been."
Mr Wray, who was shot dead, was allegedly shot twice, the second time as he lay wounded in Glenfada Park.
The granting of anonymity to the soldiers involved was vigorously opposed by the families of the dead. The issue of a venue for the soldiers' evidence was "the next fundamental issue", said Mr McCartney.
"It is absolutely crucial to public confidence in the inquiry, particularly if you remember that Lord Widgery moved his whole inquiry, in 1972, to Coleraine. That was just one key factor in undermining confidence in that inquiry."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) in London said the armed forces would be "studying the ruling in detail and deciding what steps we need to take now".
It is expected barristers for the soldiers will seek a judicial review at a divisional court in London, which could then be taken to the Court of Appeal or eventually to the House of Lords.
If no appeal is made the first soldier should appear in January.
Several thousand soldiers and former soldiers who were in Derry on Bloody Sunday have been interviewed and an expected several hundred are required to give their account of events to Lord Saville.
When they give evidence their anonymity has been guaranteed. Their names, addresses or dates of birth will not be made public. It has not yet been decided whether they will appear in court openly or behind a screen. Nor has there been a ruling on whether they may be photographed arriving at or leaving the inquiry.
The tribunal ruled neither the RUC nor the MOD had advised that the level of security risk to any soldier appearing at the tribunal in Derry would "be so high that it could be described as real and immediate".
Mr McCartney said he and his clients regarded what happened to Mr Wray as a "war crime".
"We will certainly be looking for a prosecution after the tribunal. There cannot be one law for soldiers and one for the rest of us," he said.
George Jackson in Derry writes:
A key submission given by one of Northern Ireland's most senior Catholic RUC officers is believed to have played a central role in persuading the inquiry's judges to rule that the British soldiers should give their evidence in Derry.
Supt Peter Sheridan was one of half a dozen members of the security services who met Lord Saville and his two colleagues, Judge John Toohey and Judge William Hoyt last June, to consider the security implications of the soldiers, many of them now former members of the Parachute Regiment, taking the witness stand in the Guildhall.
Last week a man from the Creggan area of Derry was jailed for four years in the Special Criminal Court in Dublin when he was convicted of possessing information about Supt Sheridan.
Gerald Anthony McFadden (31), who was found guilty of possessing information about Supt Sheridan that could be useful to members of an illegal organisation, is the second person to be jailed under the legislation which was introduced after the Omagh bomb atrocity.
During the secret security meeting in London on June 18th, Supt Sheridan told the three judges adequate protection could be provided for up to 200 military witnesses who are expected to give evidence.
A note of the meeting records that the police chief told Lord Saville that his officers had more than 30 years' experience in providing protection in high profile criminal cases.
"The RUC said that operationally it did have the capacity and it would be achievable", the note stated.
It also emerged at the same meeting that the soldiers might give their evidence under armed guard.
"The RUC responsibility for ensuring a safe environment would, from the force's point of view, require uniformed and armed RUC officers to be present in the Guildhall. Whether and where the RUC would be deployed in the Guildhall would depend on prevailing circumstances. As necessary, it would liaise with the Garda and the army," the note added.
Mr Michael McKinney, whose brother William was shot dead, said the families were delighted at the ruling.
"We have always said Derry is the natural place for the soldiers to give evidence about their actions in Derry on Bloody Sunday," he said.
"It may be that the soldiers will challenge the ruling, but we must wait and see on that. The families have always said that we want these soldiers to come and give their evidence in Derry.
"We want them to come in a safe environment and we would take grave exception if anybody was to launch any sort of attack on these soldiers. If any group was to do that, it would interfere in our quest to get to the truth. If such an incident did take place, I'm sure the tribunal would move elsewhere and that would only hinder the search for the truth of what happened on Bloody Sunday", he said.
