Decision due on public inquiry into Omagh bombing
David Young and Jonathan McCambridge, PA
A decision on whether to order a public inquiry into the 1998 Omagh bombing is expected to be announced later by the British government.
Relatives of victims of the atrocity have been advised that Britain's Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is set to make a statement in the UK's House of Commons.
A Northern Ireland Office spokesperson said: “The government intends to make an announcement imminently.”
The dissident republican bomb exploded in the Co Tyrone town on August 15th, 1998 killing 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins. Hundreds more were injured.
In 2021, a High Court judge recommended that the UK government should carry out a human rights-compliant investigation into alleged security failings in the lead-up to the attack.
Mr Justice Horner found that it was potentially plausible the attack could have been prevented.
His ruling came after a legal challenge by a bereaved family member against the British government’s refusal to hold a public inquiry.
The judge also recommended that the Irish Government establish its own investigation.
Mr Heaton-Harris had pledged to announce the British government’s response to the judgement early in the new year.
He travelled to Omagh in December to meet some of the bereaved families and visit the site of the bombing and a nearby memorial garden.
In his 2021 judgement, Justice Horner directed that a fresh investigation should take place into the Real IRA atrocity.
He said any probe should examine the failure to act on an informer tip-off or use intelligence and surveillance evidence about previous terror attacks.
The judge said a new investigation should also examine whether a politically motivated “de-escalation” of the security approach to dissident republicans in the months before the 1998 attack resulted in crucial intelligence not being acted upon.
Mr Justice Horner said he was not going to order specifically that the UK probe into the Omagh bomb takes the form of a public inquiry, explaining he did not want to be “prescriptive” about the methodology.
While having no jurisdiction to order the Irish Government to act on the matter, the judge also urged authorities there to establish their own probe in light of his findings.
