A cousin of the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, has challenged a decision by the North's Director of Public Prosecutions not to prosecute RUC officers alleged to have caused the injuries which led to a judge awarding him £30,000 compensation.
In the High Court in Belfast, Mr Arthur Harvey QC said the award to David Adams (41) followed a judge's ruling that he had been subjected to a brutal assault by policemen. Yet the DPP had not only failed to prosecute those involved, he had also failed to provide adequate and intelligible reasons for doing so.
He was opening an application before Mr Justice Gillen for judicial review of the DPP's decision not to prosecute police officers following the ruling by Mr Justice Kerr two years ago that they had been guilty of "illegal behaviour".
Adams, of Bunbeg Park, Belfast, is serving a 25-year sentence for conspiracy to murder a senior detective in 1994.
The hearing continues.