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Bikers to protest over plans to prosecute British soldier over Bloody Sunday

Bikers to protest over plans to prosecute British soldier over Bloody Sunday

Bikers are due to hold a protest in London today against the prosecution of a British soldier over Bloody Sunday.

Soldier F is to be charged with murdering two people after British troops opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in Derry in 1972.

Some relatives of the 13 killed have campaigned for justice.

British veterans have reacted angrily to the decision to take legal action decades after the bloodshed.

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The organisers of the Rolling Thunder event said their action is directed against the British Government rather than the victims' families.

They were shot dead on January 30, 1972, on one of the most notorious days of the Troubles.

Soldier F will face charges for the murders of James Wray and William McKinney and the attempted murders of Joseph Friel, Michael Quinn, Joe Mahon and Patrick O'Donnell, Northern Ireland's Public Prosecution Service has said.

A public inquiry conducted by a senior British judge shortly after the deaths was branded a whitewash by victims' families and a campaign was launched for a new public inquiry.

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Relatives sought to right the wrongs of false claims that their loved ones had been armed. A fresh probe was eventually ordered by then British prime minister Tony Blair in 1998.

A decade-long investigation by Lord Saville concluded that the British troops killed protesters who posed no threat.

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