Bloody Sunday inquiry will not move

Fourteen civilians died after Bloody Sunday shootings

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry has decided not to move its hearings from the Guildhall in Londonderry when it starts taking evidence from soldiers involved in the shootings.

The tribunal has said it will use video link technology to hear the soldiers' testimony and that members of the public will have access to the location, which has not yet been decided.

After the Court of Appeal ruled on Wednesday that the soldiers should not travel to the inquiry, the tribunal had to decide how the soldiers should give evidence.

Now Lord Saville has said he wants the inquiry to stay in Derry while the soldiers' evidence comes on video from a location in Britain.

A spokesman for most of the families said they were studying this option carefully.

Soldiers in Derry on Bloody Sunday

But a solicitor for one of them, Greg McCartney, said he was opposed to the use of video link.

The decision delivered on Wednesday meant the Saville Inquiry's ruling that evidence should be given in Londonderry was quashed.

Civil rights

Shortly after the judgement was delivered, the tribunal headed by Lord Saville of Newdigate, said it would not appeal the court's ruling.

The Bloody Sunday inquiry, sitting in the Guildhall in Derry, is examining the events of 30 January 1972 when 13 civilians were shot dead by British soldiers after a civil rights march in Londonderry.

A 14th person died later.

The 36 former soldiers, thought to include the paratroops who fired the fatal shots on Bloody Sunday, had argued that they could be attacked by dissident republicans if they travelled to give evidence in Derry.

A lawyer for the military witnesses to the Saville Inquiry told the Court of Appeal in London that the risk of "terrorist reprisals" was higher in Northern Ireland than in Great Britain.

However, counsel for the Saville Inquiry argued that in the light of the protection being offered by the security forces in Northern Ireland, the soldiers' fears were unreasonable.

Immune from prosecution

The soldiers have always argued that they were fired on by IRA men before they opened fire.

This is disputed by many witnesses and relatives of those killed and injured.

The Bloody Sunday inquiry was established in 1998 by Prime Minister Tony Blair after a campaign by families of those killed and injured.

They felt that the Widgery Inquiry, held shortly after the shootings, did not find out the truth about what happened on Bloody Sunday.

Witnesses to the inquiry are immune from prosecution on issues arising from their evidence. It is aimed solely at establishing the facts about what happened.

The new inquiry is expected to run for another two years.