The verdict in a multi million-euro legal action against five men accused of the Omagh bombing will be delivered tomorrow.
They are being sued for up to €16 million by families of some of the 29 people killed in the 1998 Real IRA atrocity.
The relatives launched the landmark civil action in frustration at the ongoing failure to secure a successful criminal conviction over the attack. It is believed to be the first time anywhere in the world that alleged members of a paramilitary organisation have been sued.
Mr Justice Morgan is set to deliver his judgment in Belfast High Court.
Michael McKevitt, an alleged founding member of the dissident republican group, is among the five facing the claim for damages. Another is Co Louth farmer Liam Campbell who is currently in custody in Northern Ireland facing a bid to extradite him to Lithuania to face arms smuggling charges. Colm Murphy, also from Co Louth, is named in the action as well. In 2002 he was found guilty in Dublin’s Special Criminal Court of conspiring to cause the Omagh bomb but his conviction was later quashed. The other two accused of involvement are Seamus McKenna and Seamus Daly.
The families are also suing the Real IRA as an organisation.
They first launched the action more than eight years ago. The trial began last April and made legal history when it crossed the Border to hear evidence in a court in the Republic.
The legal bid has cost more than €2 million, with the families having been backed in their fund raising efforts by former US president Bill Clinton and ex-Northern Ireland Secretaries of State Peter Mandelson and Sir Patrick Mayhew as well as celebrities Bob Geldof and former boxing champion Barry McGuigan.
PA