The Derry man shot last year by a suspected IRA gang for challenging a punishment attack on his nephew is to stand as a human rights candidate in the assembly elections.
Coach operator Danny McBrearty (54) was shot in both legs and struck on the head with a hammer in Derry's Creggan area last September as he drove a group of pensioners home from an outing in Co Donegal.
Mr McBrearty's nephew, 31-year-old Joseph McCloskey, a nightclub bouncer, was ordered to leave Derry in April 2001 following a row with an alleged IRA man in a pub.
The McCloskey family claimed an armed IRA gang came to Joseph McCloskey's house following the row and fired a number of shots.
Mr McBrearty, who was in the house at the time, fired back with a legally held shotgun. Within days Joseph McCloskey was ordered to leave Derry with his wife and five children.
His mother Bridie launched a high-profile campaign calling on the IRA to guarantee his safe return.
Joseph McCloskey was allowed to return to the city following a personal meeting with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams in London.
Last September's attack on his uncle was believed to have been in revenge for his intervention in the April 2001 incident.
Mr McBrearty said his decision to stand as an Independent Human Rights candidate for the scheduled May 29 elections was "not about standing against a particular party".
"I intend to provide a voice for all those, from both sides of the community, who live in fear of those same communities and the hidden intimidation that goes on," he said.
Mr McBrearty said the "turmoil" of the past two years had changed him from a lifelong republican to a human rights activist.
"They are not the same because if being a republican means terrorising your own people, as it appears to in several areas of the north, then I want no part in it," he said.
"But human rights should be there for us all, whether republican, loyalist or indifferent."
Mr McBrearty said he was confident of securing the vote of the "hidden voices" across Derry.
