IRA victims campaigner Willie Frazer is preparing to serve High Court writs for damages on Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness and leading Tyrone republican Brian Arthurs.

The writs, on behalf of Provisional IRA victims, will relate to the trio's past involvement in paramilitary activity. Last week, Frazer visited the South Armagh farm of former IRA chief-of-staff, Thomas 'Slab' Murphy, with a similar writ. Frazer entered the premises near Crossmaglen and shouted at two men there but neither responded. He then left the writ in the cab of a lorry. Murphy has 14 days to reply.

Frazer is seeking damages from Murphy for the 1975 IRA murder of his father, a UDR member, in a move similar to that taken against dissidents by the Omagh bomb families.

Frazer told the Sunday Tribune he had writs prepared for Brian Arthurs, Adams, and McGuinness. Arthurs, who is now a local businessman, was sentenced in 1995 to 25 years for possession of explosives. He was freed under the Good Friday agreement. In 2005, he was arrested in connection with the Northern Bank robbery but was released without charge. In 2007, he was charged in relation to a multi-million pound fraud investigation but the charges were dropped last year.

Frazer said: "I'm just waiting to serve these writs. It's time that justice was done for IRA victims. We are currently pursuing a separate case for compensation against Libya. If that is successful, we might drop the Northern Ireland writs. But we are determined to hold the IRA to account, whether at home or abroad."

Frazer's threat to serve writs on Adams and McGuinness puts huge pressure on the British government to convince Libya to settle the compensation case taken by 176 IRA victims.

A civil case in the North, where detailed accounts of the IRA activities of Sinn Féin leaders would be heard in court, would cause immense embarrassment to the British government and would inevitably destabilise the North's political institutions.

Frazer will travel to London this week to view documents the British Foreign Office plans to present to Libya. A political delegation visited Tripoli earlier this month to meet representatives of Colonel Gaddafi. Libya could pay up to £1bn in compensation for supplying the IRA with guns and explosives during the Troubles.

Meanwhile, Frazer said he had received death threats since visiting Murphy's farm. "One telephone caller told me 'You'll not see Christmas. You're getting a bullet in the back of the head.' Two car-loads of known republicans visited the farm of a personal friend and ordered him to tell me that they'd be sorting me out and stopping me making 'house calls'."

On Thursday night, an IRA victims campaigner in Pontyz Pass had 'IRA' scraped on his car. The vehicle's tyres were slashed and windows broken. "Police have been informed but you may as well tell Santa Claus," Frazer said.