The China Mail - IRA bomb victims drop civil court claim against Gerry Adams

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 on 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.

- 'Emphatic end' -

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.

V.Fan--ThChM