STORY
Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists have called for a fresh investigation into the murder of Sunday World reporter Martin O’Hagan. The appeal was issued on the 25th anniversary of his death, with no one having been held criminally responsible for the killing.
O’Hagan was shot dead near his home in Lurgan, County Armagh, on 28 September 2001 in an attack attributed to loyalist paramilitaries. In 2013, the Director of Public Prosecutions asked the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland to investigate the handling of the case by police. The Ombudsman has told Amnesty International that it remains unable to provide a timeframe for publishing its findings.
The organisations are seeking publication of the Ombudsman’s report alongside a new independent investigation intended to identify evidence capable of supporting prosecutions. They argued that the absence of accountability had contributed to an environment in which journalists investigating paramilitary activity continued to face threats and intimidation in Northern Ireland.