tag

Three victims of IRA bombings in England Friday dropped their civil claim for damages against former Irish republican leader Gerry Adams, whom they had sought to hold personally responsible for orchestrating the blasts.The trio — who were injured in IRA bomb blasts in the 1970s and 1990s — had also sought to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Adams was a senior member of the Irish Republican Army.But on the last day of the two-week trial, their lawyer Anne Studd told the High Court in London that the parties had reached an agreement.The three bomb victims had sued Adams for a symbolic one pound in damages."The parties have agreed... that the claim is discontinued," said a statement read by judge Jonathan Swift.He made no order as to costs.Adams, the former president of Sinn Fein, the IRA's former political wing, was not in court Friday, having attended earlier in the week.Three people died in the three bombings — in London in 1973, and in London and Manchester in 1996 — and scores more were injured.The three claimants alleged that Adams was a senior IRA figure for more than 25 years who "acted with others in furtherance of a common design to bomb the British mainland"."These allegations are untrue. I was never a member of the IRA or its Army Council," Adams said in his witness statement."I do not defend all the IRA actions," added Adams, who has always denied being a member of the IRA.He also "categorically" denied involvement in the attacks."To be clear, I had no involvement in or advance knowledge" of the bombings," he said.It was the first time the 77-year-old — who has been embroiled in several legal spats over his role in the Troubles — testified in an English court.More than 3,500 people were killed during the Troubles, the three-decades-long violent sectarian conflict over British rule in Northern Ireland that ignited in the late 1960s.The unrest came to an end following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.After the court announcement, Adams said in a message posted on social media that he "welcomed" the decision to drop the claim."I attended the civil case out of respect for them... This decision brings to an emphatic end a case that should never have been brought," he said.Adams became president of Sinn Fein in 1983 and was elected as an MP from 1983 to 1992 and again from 1997 to 2011, though in line with the party's policy of abstentionism he never took his seat in the British parliament.He then sat in the Irish parliament between 2011 and 2020.He stepped down as leader of Sinn Fein in 2018. Although interned twice in the 1970s, Adams has never been found guilty of IRA membership.In 2020, he had convictions for attempting to escape jail quashed by the UK Supreme Court.Last year, he won a libel case in Dublin against the BBC over a report containing allegations he was involved in killing a British spy. 

Israel rigged pagers, walkie-talkies to explodeBlasts killed dozens, wounded thousands including childrenVictims still undergoing surgeryUN called attack 'unacceptable'Zainab Mustarah once spent her days running an events planning firm in Beirut. But for the last year, she has been in and out of surgery to save the remnants of her right hand and both eyes, maimed when Israel detonated booby-trapped pagers in Lebanon.On September 17, 2024, thousands of pagers carried by members of Lebanese group Hezbollah exploded simultaneously, followed the next day by booby-trapped walkie-talkies.Thirty-nine people were killed and more than 3,400 wounded, including children and other civilians who were near the devices when they blew up but were not members of the group. Mustarah, now 27, was one of the wounded. She told Reuters she was working from home when the pager, which belonged to a relative, beeped as if receiving a message. It exploded without her touching it, leaving her conscious but with severe wounds to her face and hand.Her last year has been a flurry of 14 operations, including in Iran, with seven cosmetic reconstruction surgeries left to go. She lost the fingers on her right hand and 90% of her sight.“I can no longer continue with interior design because my vision is 10%. God willing, next year we will see which university majors will suit my wounds, so I can continue,” she said. The exploding pagers and walkie-talkies were the opening salvo of a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the green light for the attacks, his spokesperson said two months later.A Reuters investigation found that Israel had concealed a small but potent charge of plastic explosive and a detonator into thousands of pagers procured by the group.They were carried by fighters, but also by members of Hezbollah’s social services branches and medical services.The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said at the time that the explosions were “shocking, and their impact on civilians unacceptable.” He said simultaneously targeting thousands of people without knowing precisely who was in possession of the targeted devices, or where they were, “violates international human rights law and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law.”Mohammed Nasser al-Din, 34, was the director of the medical equipment and engineering department at Al-Rasoul Al-Aazam Hospital, a Hezbollah-affiliated facility, at the time of the pager blasts. He said he had a pager to be easily reached for any maintenance needs there.At the hospital on September 17 last year, he spoke by phone with his wife to check in on their son’s first day back at school.Moments later, his pager exploded.The blast cost him his left eye and left fingers and lodged shrapnel in his skull. He lay in a coma for two weeks and is still undergoing surgeries to his face.He woke to learn of the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a barrage of Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a turning point for the group and its supporters.But Nasser al-Din did not shed a tear — until his son saw the state he was in. “The distress I felt was over how my son could accept that my condition was like this,” he said.Elias Jrade, a Lebanese member of parliament and eye surgeon who conducted dozens of operations on those affected, said that some of the cases would have to receive lifelong treatment.“There were children and women who would ask, what happened to us? And you can’t answer them,” he told Reuters.