Finucane family's new bid for inquiry into killing
The family of murdered Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane launched new court action against the British government today in a bid to force it to set up a public inquiry immediately into the killing.
The move came after the High Court in Belfast yesterday agreed to a British government application for a three week adjournment of an action by the Finucane family seeking to compel Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy to publish reports into the killing and three others that he has been sitting on for over four months.
The reports, drawn up by retired Canadian Supreme Court Judge Peter Cory, examined allegations of security force collusion in the murders.
The Irish Government was also given reports on two killings – of two senior RUC officers and a High Court judge and his wife – amid allegations of collusion with the IRA by gardaí
Those reports were published in December and a public inquiry ordered into the murders of the two policemen – on their way back across the border from a meeting with Garda officers in Dundalk.
In the absence of publication of the reports by the British government, the families of those killed have been fighting a legal battle to get the reports published – Judge Cory has told them privately he recommended public inquiries in each case.
It was revealed in court yesterday that the Ministry of Defence, Chief Constable and DPP have seen the reports while the families have not.
The Finucane family highlight that after a round of political talks at Weston Park in 2001, Tony Blair gave a commitment to hold a public inquiry if Judge Cory recommended one.
Despite what the judge has recommended, the Government had done “absolutely nothing” said the Finucanes.
Peter Madden, of Madden & Finucane the family solicitors, said: “The British government continues to delay and obstruct the establishment of the inquiry.
“The establishment of the inquiry does not depend upon the publication of the Cory Report.
“These new proceedings relate to the immediate establishment of the inquiry despite the non-publication of the Cory Report.
“No matter how many obstructions or delays, the Finucane family is determined to vindicate their legal rights and pursue all legal remedies to achieve their objective.”
To that end, papers were lodged in the Northern Ireland High Court today seeking leave to apply for a judicial review of the government’s failure to hold a public inquiry into the death of the prominent Catholic solicitor who was shot dead by the Ulster Freedom Fighters in front of his family in his north Belfast home 15 years ago.
The other murders Judge Cory reported on were:
:: The loyalist killing of solicitor Rosemary Nelson who was blown up by an under-car bomb as she drove away from her Lurgan, Co Armagh home in 1999.
:: The murder of Catholic Robert Hamill, who was kicked to death by a loyalist mob in 1997.
:: The murder of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright who was shot dead inside the Maze prison by the INLA in 1997.
