TWO MEN held liable for the Omagh bombing have been denied authorisation to appeal to the supreme court in London.
Senior judges in Belfast refused yesterday to grant leave for jailed Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt and fellow dissident republican Liam Campbell. They also rejected applications by another man facing a civil retrial over the atrocity, Séamus Daly, and by the victims’ relatives who brought the action.
Lawyers for the defendants and plaintiffs are set to petition the supreme court directly in a bid to have their arguments heard.
Earlier this year both McKevitt and Campbell lost their challenges against being found responsible for the atrocity.
McKevitt, a Real IRA leader serving a 20-year jail sentence; Campbell, a farmer from Co Louth fighting extradition to Lithuania over an alleged arms smuggling plot; Colm Murphy, a Dundalk builder and publican, and Daly, Co Monaghan, were all held liable for the bombing in a civil ruling delivered in June 2009.
Appeals this July by Murphy and Daly against the verdict were upheld. Both were ordered to face civil retrials. Daly’s legal team says it would be unfair for him to have to defend the allegations all over again. The victims’ relatives also want to go before the supreme court in an attempt to win higher exemplary damages.