A lawyer for the former British prime minister, Sir Edward Heath, and three ministerial colleagues from the 1970s argued yesterday that because of their age and vulnerability they should not be required to travel to Derry to give evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.
Sir Edward, along with the former defence secretary, Lord Carrington, former junior defence minister, Lord Crawford, and former under-secretary for defence, Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith, are expected to hear a ruling from the tribunal later this week on their application to be allowed to give their oral evidence in London.
Mr David Mackie QC, for the four, said they were public figures and each had a long and distinguished career in public service.
Two of them were still well known, worldwide.
The security threat was self-evident and "obviously increases" if they should visit Derry.
He said Sir Edward, who was prime minister at the time of Bloody Sunday, will be aged 86 next month and Lord Carrington will be 83 when he comes to give evidence. Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith is 78 and Lord Crawford is 75.
The first three, Mr Mackie said, did not suffer from any medical difficulties which would prevent them from travelling.
But Lord Crawford's health was poor and was specified in a confidential annex supplied to the tribunal.
The inquiry is to transfer to London in September to begin hearing the evidence of soldiers who were on duty in Derry on Bloody Sunday, because of a ruling by the Court of Appeal that their personal security would be endangered if they had to travel to Derry.
Mr Mackie stressed that, despite their advanced age, his clients stood ready to give evidence.
The fact that the inquiry would be sitting in London anyway must carry great weight when evaluating their application.
He said the strain involved in giving controversial evidence would increase when there was added to it travel, waiting, testifying and perhaps staying "in an unknown and partly hostile environment".
The inquiry was told that a Home Office threat assessment said that, since Mr Heath was a former British prime minister closely involved with policy-making on Northern Ireland, there was potential for him to be singled out for attack by Irish republican terrorists.
The fact that he was to give evidence at the inquiry would not in itself increase the threat.
The current threat to him in Britain was assessed as "moderate", meaning there was potential for him to be singled out for attack.
A separate assessment by the Police Service of Northern Ireland indicated there was no intelligence pointing to a specific threat to the former politicians, but said there would be a "marginal increase in their vulnerability" if required to come to Northern Ireland.
On the poor health of Lord Crawford, the chairman, Lord Saville, asked counsel to ascertain if there was medical advice that it might damage his health if he was to give evidence in Derry rather than London.
Lord Gifford QC, for a number of victims' families, said the people of Derry should be able to witness the testimony of important political witnesses, "who bear some responsibility for the deployment of the British army in Northern Ireland . . ."
He said it might be thought strange for former politicians and a former prime minister to be saying they were coming to a partly hostile environment "as if it is some foreign country".
Counsel added: "In terms of thinking that somehow Mr Heath is thinking he is coming into enemy territory, we know from all our experiences . . . that the people of this city are intensely interested in this tribunal, respect the right of every witness to come here unmolested and give his account, and to go away without feeling he is somehow entering a courtroom."
However, concerning Lord Crawford's application on medical grounds, counsel said: "This is not a Gen Pinochet situation where everybody should be entitled to pick over the medical reasons."
He would not seek to have the details supplied to the tribunal.
A ruling is expected from the tribunal before the weekend.