Judgment reserved in Seamus Ludlow inquiry case

Judges are set to rule later on whether the Minister for Justice should be compelled to call two commissions of investigation into the 1976 murder of Seamus Ludlow.

A three-day hearing before the High Court in Dublin came to a close yesterday.

Mr Ludlow’s family are bidding to force the Government to hold two commissions of inquiry into his murder, as recommended by an Oireachtas committee in 2006.

Solicitor Gavin Booth of Belfast firm KRW Law, representing Mr Ludlow’s family, said: “It is our case that the State cannot discharge its Article 2, European Convention on Human Rights, duties to this family and the wider public until it establishes these further Commissions of Investigations.”

Mr Booth added: “The Joint Committee of the Oireachtas reports only answered some of the family’s questions and stated that further commissions of investigation were ‘essential’ and ‘required’ in the interests of justice to answer the remaining questions, particularly in relation to the role of Gardaí.

“No family should have to use the courts to get to the truth of what happened to their loved one. This needs immediately rectified by the Government.

“We now call on the Government to implement these recommendations without further delay and suffering to the Ludlow family.”