No-deal Brexit legal appeal dismissed by Belfast judge

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Raymond McCordImage source, PAcemaker
Image caption,

Raymond McCord's son was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in 1997

An appeal over a legal challenge that a no-deal Brexit would negatively effect the peace process and endanger the Good Friday Agreement has been dismissed.

The Court of Appeal in Belfast upheld a High Court decision to dismiss the three cases earlier in September.

One of the three cases was brought was by the victims' campaigner Raymond McCord.

The High Court judge said the main aspects of the case were "inherently and unmistakeably political".

Lord Justice Bernard McCloskey added that "virtually all of the assembled evidence belongs to the world of politics".

He also excluded a challenge against the suspension of Parliament because the issue formed the "centrepiece" of proceedings in England and Scotland.

Those proceedings came to a close when the Supreme Court ruled that the suspension of Parliament - known as proroguing - was unlawful.

Mr McCord's lawyers took part in the Supreme Court hearing leading up to that ruling.

Image caption,

Raymond McCord junior was beaten to death before his body was dumped in a quarry near north Belfast in 1997

Mr McCord's 22-year-old son, Raymond junior, was murdered by the UVF in Belfast in 1997.

No one has ever been convicted of the former RAF man's murder.