A judge at Belfast Crown Court has rejected a defence application to stop the trial of a man accused of the Omagh bombing eight years ago.
But Mr Justice Weir has acquitted Sean Hoey of two of the 58 charges he faced.
The judge told 37-year-old Mr Hoey, an electrician from Jonesborough in south Armagh, that he still had a case to answer on the remaining 56 charges. These include the murders of 29 victims of the bombing in Omagh in August 1998; one of the victims was expecting twins. Mr Hoey has denied the charges.
Refusing the defence application to abort the trial, the judge said the test was not whether there was a 'reasonable doubt', but whether the evidence was so 'discredited or intrinsically weak' that he could not convict.
Mr Justice Weir added: 'I have not concluded that the state of the evidence does fail the test.'
Mr Hoey has been acquitted of a car bombing in Banbridge a fortnight before the Omagh attack, and of conspiracy to murder members of the security forces at Blackwatertown Road near Armagh between May and July 1998. Mr Justice Weir said the prosecution had conceded, quite properly in his view, that there was no evidence to sustain those charges.
Mr Hoey's trial has now been adjourned to the New Year. The remaining charges relate not only to the Omagh bombing, but to five other murder conspiracies, four bombings, four bomb conspiracies, and the possession of explosives.
