The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] on Thursday dismissed [decision; press release] the complaints of two individuals who were found liable for the 1998 Omagh bombing [BBC backgrounder]. The Belfast High Court had found that Liam Campbell and Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt were civilly liable for perpetuating the bombing. They appealed to the ECHR arguing that their trial was unfair because the court should have applied criminal, rather than civil standards of proof. At issue for the plaintiffs was their inability to cross examine FBI agents whose testimony was relayed to the court. The ECHR dismissed the complaint in a final, binding decision.

The fight to establish responsibility for the bombing has been ongoing. The Belfast High Court in 2008 heard arguments [JURIST report] in a civil lawsuit against five suspected Real IRA members accused of involvement in the deadly 1998 Omagh bombing, in which a car loaded with explosives killed 29 people and wounded 220 on a busy shopping street. In 2009 the Belfast High Court found [JURIST report] four men, including McKevitt and Campbell, and the Real IRA responsible for the Omagh bombing in a civil case brought by victims’ families. In 2010 the Irish Special Criminal Court dismissed [JURIST report the case against the only man criminally convicted for a role in the 1998 Omagh bombing, finding that the evidence against Colm Murphy was not strong enough to support the conviction