Soldiers who opened fire on Bloody Sunday must return to Derry to give evidence at the Saville inquiry, it was announced today.
The tribunal ruled the city was "the proper place" for military witnesses to testify about the killings.
Thirteen unarmed Catholic men and youths were shot dead by the British army during a civil rights demonstration almost three decades ago. One more demonstrator died later.
About 250 military witnesses are to be called into the witness box at the inquiry, which has been sitting in public in the Guildhall, Derry, for over a year. Among them will be the paratroopers who fired the lethal shots on January 30th, 1972.
Lawyers acting for the soldiers fought to have the hearings transferred to Britain when the men were called to testify, probably in spring next year.
Tory MP Mr Gerald Howarth, whose Aldershot constituency is home to several of the ex-servicemen being called to give evidence, condemned the decision.
He told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "Requiring the former soldiers to go to Londonderry . . . without giving them the protection of screening is likely to undermine the assurance of anonymity that the tribunal was reluctantly forced to concede to them.
"What happens to these people once they have been photographed and then they return to the United Kingdom?" Mr Howarth called on the ex-servicemen's legal team to attempt to overturn the decision in the courts.
Solicitor for many of the bereaved Mr Peter Madden described today's judgment as "a very strong ruling".
"It is firm, reasonable and vindicates the families' position that the soldiers should come to Derry, the city where people were killed. But we'll have to wait and see; it's not the end of the matter. The soldiers' representatives may well challenge it by way of a judicial review in the High Court in England".
Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly said the ruling was "a good idea but it shouldn't have taken this length of time to come to that conclusion".
In its ruling, the tribunal said: "In the 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".
PA