Proceedings brought by relatives of two murder victims over alleged collusion in the importation of the deadly consignment in the late 1980s were listed for a five-day hearing in November. Their legal representatives predicted that the outcome of the actions could have wider implications for other cases about scores of killings linked to the same batch of guns from Beirut. Advertisement Advertisement Did you know with an ad-lite subscription to NorthernIrelandWorld, you get 70% fewer ads while viewing the news that matters to you.
Patrick Frizzell and Margaret Lundy are both suing the PSNI and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) amid allegations the arsenal of weapons was permitted to be brought into Northern Ireland and distributed among loyalist terror groups for use in a series of attacks. In March 1991, Mr Frizzell’s brother, Brian Frizzell, was shot dead along with Eileen Duffy, 19, and 16-year-old Katrina Rennie by the UVF in Craigavon. Mrs Lundy’s husband, Alan Lundy, was gunned down by a UDA unit at the west Belfast home of Sinn Fein representative Alex Maskey in May 1993.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs claim police and MI5 knew about loyalist plans to import hundreds of rifles, pistols and grenades via South Africa but did nothing to intercept the shipment. Advertisement Advertisement The UDA, UVF and Ulster Clubs - a network of organisations which operated at the time - were said to have been making efforts to source weapons across Europe, the Middle East and North Americ.
