British army veteran stands trial on two Bloody Sunday murder charges | Northern Ireland

An Army Veteran will be tried for the murder on Monday, in 1972, in Derry, 13 civil rights protesters.

The former parachutist, known as Soldier F, is accused of two murders and five trial murders during a military operation, which has become a descriptive event of Northern Ireland’s troubles.

James claimed that James Wray and William McKinney did not blame the murders and the murder of five other people.

For the dead and wounded families, the hearing in the Belfast Crown Court is the climax of the 53 -year campaign.

The soldiers shot 31 civilians in Derry on 30 January 1972. Thirteen died that day. Another wounded who died four months later is considered the 14th victim.

A court ruled by Lord Widaghery in 1972 cleared injustice soldiers, but Lord Saville’s 2010 investigation concluded that the murders were “unfair and unfair”. The British government apologized for the murders. Games, films, books, documentaries and annual commemoration ceremonies kept public consciousness on Sunday.

After claiming that the identity of defense lawyers would be a “award -winning target için for the opposition republicans, the military was given anonymity. When he went to court in Court in December 2024, he sat in a witness box protected by the blue curtain from a thick ceiling of the court’s main organ. Similar arrangements are expected for the hearing.

Mr. Justice Fowler will chair the case without a jury permitted in extraordinary cases.

At the hearing before the trial in March, Soldier F’s legal team argued that the inconsistencies in the accounts of other parachutists and civil witnesses meant sufficient evidence for a hearing.

Prosecutors said that “objectionable evidence ve will be discussed during the hearing, and that the military F was“ overwhelming evidence ilişkin about the army’s actions on the day when Derry opened fire on the protesters in Bogie.

Fowler, who is the authority to continue the case, said that the soldiers in Glenfada Park accepted evidence showing that a relatively limited courtyard was illegal in firing with high -speed rifles in a group of unarmed civilians. “In my opinion, it provides the adequacy of evidence and this is not permanent. Accordingly, the Court realizes that the commitment declarations have announced a sufficient case for the trial of the defendant for each of the seven numbers in the indictment.”

The lawsuit will be closely monitored by the families of those who died in the Bloody Markets and Veterans groups, Irish and British governments. London and Dublin are discussing ways to repel the Legacy Law, which is a gradual attempt to prosecute the prosecution of the previous conservative government for the alleged crimes.