Legal proceedings alleging that former Gerry Adams was a member of the IRA have begun in London.
The former Louth TD and MP for West Belfast is facing a lawsuit seeking symbolic damages of £1 from three people injured in IRA bomb attacks, reports RTE.
It marks the first occasion on which a court has been asked to rule on claims that Mr Adams belonged to the IRA, something he has consistently denied.
He is present in court and is expected to give evidence in his own defence next week, reports RTE.
The case has been brought by John Clark, who was injured in the 1973 bombing of the Old Bailey in London, as well as Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock, who were wounded in bomb attacks at London’s Docklands and Manchester’s Arndale Shopping Centre in 1996.
Court papers lodged with the High Court state that the claimants allege Mr Adams was “directly responsible for and complicit in the decisions made” to carry out those bombings due to what they claim was his role within the IRA, reports RTE.
Responding to his repeated denials of IRA membership, a lawyer representing the claimants told the court that the available evidence indicates otherwise.
The lawyer said the claimants intend to establish their case against Mr Adams “with a jigsaw of evidence from those who knew him and those who knew of him”, reports RTE.
“Whilst we accept that the jigsaw may not result in the placing of every piece, we consider that there are more than sufficient pieces to enable the court reach a firm conclusion on balance of probabilities in relation to the whole picture of the defendant’s involvement in the armed struggle in 1973 and in 1996 through his membership of and the ranks he held within PIRA,” said Anne Studd KC, reports RTE.
She added: “There is no doubt that the defendant contributed to the peace in Northern Ireland, but the claimants say that on the evidence he also contributed to the war,” reports RTE.
In written submissions, Edward Craven KC told the court that Mr Adams “strenuously” rejects the allegations and argued that the “extraordinary delay” in bringing the claims had severely hindered his ability to defend himself and his right to a fair hearing.
“The majority of potential witnesses and alleged protagonists are now dead; relevant documents and records have been lost; and recollections of events that took place decades ago have inevitably faded beyond the point of reliability,” he said, reports RTE.
The barrister said the claimants were depending on “an assortment of hearsay evidence” because of “the absence of any direct witness evidence.”
The submission also states that Mr Adams firmly denies any role in the bombings and that he “played an instrumental role” in the peace process that led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, reports RTE.
Mr Craven also said: “The defendant has never been arrested on suspicion of, still less charged or convicted of, any offence in connection with any of the bombings.
“Had law enforcement authorities been in possession of information which created a reasonable suspicion that the defendant may have been involved in those bombings, he would have been arrested and questioned,” reports RTE.
Witnesses expected to give testimony during the six-day trial include former members of the British military, retired police officers and former IRA members.
The proceedings are a civil case heard without a jury rather than a criminal trial, meaning the required standard of proof is “on the balance of probabilities” rather than the criminal threshold of “beyond reasonable doubt”, reports RTE.
According to court filings, lawyers representing Mr Adams argue the case should fail because of the length of time taken to initiate proceedings and because “the evidence comes nowhere close to constituting clear and cogent evidence capable of establishing the defendant’s alleged responsibility for the bombings”.
Mr Adams was charged with IRA membership in 1978, but the case was later dropped due to a lack of sufficient evidence, reports RTE.
Last year, the 77-year-old secured €100,000 in damages following a case against BBC Northern Ireland over a programme that claimed he had approved the killing of former Sinn Féin official Denis Donaldson.
Mr Donaldson was shot dead in County Donegal in 2006 shortly after it emerged that he had worked as an informant for MI5 and police for two decades, reports RTE.
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