IAIS
04/23/08 19:42 EST
The family of murdered Northern Ireland human rights attorney Patrick Finucane have been informed tonight by the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) that preparations for an independent inquiry into his murder have ceased.
The NIO has cited the family’s opposition to the terms for the proposed inquiry as the obstacle. The family has now said it doubts if an inquiry will ever be held.
A letter addressed to Geraldine Finucane’s attorneies and signed by Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward’s principal private secretary earlier this month made clear that that preparatory work was stopped last year.
According to the NIO, this was because the family would not co-operate with the holding of an inquiry under the controversial Inquiries Act, which empowers the British government to withhold information and any findings from the public domain on grounds of ‘national security’.
Mrs Finucane, whose husband was shot dead in February 1989 by loyalists acting in collusion with British state agencies, has pressed for an inquiry to be held under existing less restrictive legislation, arguing that a tribunal under the Inquiries Act would not be sufficiently independent of government. She will discuss the matter tomorrow with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at Government Buildings in Dublin.
In a statement released tonigh, Mrs Finucane publicly doubted if an independent public inquiry would ever be held.
“On April 7th, 2008, my solicitor received a letter from the Northern Ireland Office which stated that, 18 months ago, in the autumn of 2006, a decision was taken by the then secretary of state, Peter Hain, to cease all preparations for an inquiry. We were not informed of this decision at the time,” Mrs Finucane said.
“This letter stated that the decision was taken because my family refused to accept ministerial control of an inquiry under the notorious Inquiries Act 2005. They appear to be saying that, unless we agree that British government minister should be allowed to control what information the inquiry is permitted to examine in public, there will be no inquiry at all.”
“Two British secretaries of state and the current prime minister have been in ongoing correspondence with me and my solicitor since early 2006, yet it is only now that they have revealed their decision. My solicitor has written back, demanding to know whether they plan to hold an inquiry or not.”
She has accused the British government of misleading the people of Ireland and of wishing to hold a type of inquiry that British ministers can control “from behind the scenes”.
Her solicitors have responded to the NIO letter seeking clarification and pledging full co-operation in any inquiry as long as it is “independent, impartial, international and public”.
They continue to insist that “no minister [ should] seek to exercise the power to issue Restriction Notices under the 2005 Inquiries Act”.
An inquiry into the Finucane murder was called for by Justice Peter Cory, a former Canadian Supreme Court judge, four years ago. He was called in by the British and Irish governments in 2001 to investigate a series of controversial cases on both sides of the Border in which collusion was suspected or alleged. In all six he recommended inquiries.
Peter Madden, representing the Finucanes, has written to Mr Woodward claiming that “no reasonable explanation has been provided as to why it is considered possible to conduct the Rosemary Nelson inquiry, which also covers issues of the alleged involvement of members of the British Army and Secret Intelligence Services, while it was claimed that new legislation had to be enacted before a Pat Finucane inquiry could be established”.
Last June, it emerged that no police officers or British soldiers were to be charged after a major investigation into collusion with loyalist paramilitaries involved in the murder of Mr. Finucane.
Even though a marathon 14-year investigation by former Scotland Yard chief Lord Stevens established elements within the Northern Ireland security forces collaborated with terrorist killers, the prosecuting authorities ruled there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to press charges.
Their decision means senior officers in the former Royal Ulster Constabulary (renamed PSNI) and military intelligence will not stand trial for any alleged involvement in the Finucane murder.
The 39-year-old lawyer was shot dead in February 1989 in front of his family when gunmen burst into his north Belfast home.
Just one of the killers was convicted, while a second was acquitted and later shot dead by former associates in the Ulster Defence Association.
Northern Ireland`s Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said a wide range of offences, including murder, had been considered against a number of individuals, but there was not enough evidence to bring charges.
In a report handed over four years ago, it was claimed that loyalist informants and agents were allowed to operate without effective control and to participate in terrorist crimes.
Lord Stevens said the Finucane killing could have been prevented, and claimed his investigations were willfully obstructed and misled.
But as the PPS announced its decision that no further prosecutions will be brought, assistant director Pamela Atchison said: “Some of the difficulties included an absence of particular records, potential witnesses who had since died and the inability in certain instances to identify the role and responsibilities that individuals played in specific events.”
“In addition, the prosecution had to take account of potential abuse of process arguments by the defense that any trial at this stage would be unfair.”
At the heart of the Stevens inquiry, his third into Northern Ireland`s Dirty War, was the role of the British Army`s surveillance operations in the North at that time, especially the Force Research Unit (FRU).
Nine former members of the covert agency, including its ex-chief Gordon Kerr, were questioned, as well as seven police officers and one civilian.
Also under investigation were three top UDA men who were working for the British intelligence services: Brian Nelson, who supplied information to FRU; Ken Barrett, who later admitted shooting Mr Finucane; and William Stobie, an RUC informer shot dead by loyalists when they feared he was about to testify against them.
Loyalist gunmen targeted Mr Finucane because he had represented a number of IRA suspects in the courts.
Even though it was claimed British intelligence had been warned in advance that the lawyer was going to be shot, Mr Finucane was not alerted.
But in its statement today, the PPS insisted: “There was insufficient evidence to establish that any member of FRU had agreed with Brian Nelson or any other person that Patrick Finucane should be murdered or had knowledge at the relevant time that the murder was to take place.” pers and therefore can`t comment at this stage.”
It was also revealed that weapons deactivated after Stobie gave them to his police handlers in 1989 were later used in loyalist killings.
Investigators had examined the conduct of RUC officers and a civilian employee in relation to the possession and handling of five guns.
The Stevens team uncovered evidence that two of the batch were either partially or fully deactivated before being handed back to Stobie.
One of the guns, a Browning pistol, was later reactivated and used to kill Catholic man Aidan Wallace in west Belfast`s Devenish Arms bar in December 1991.
Less than three months later, in south Belfast, the same weapon was used in the Sean Graham`s bookmakers massacre, when UDA gunmen shot dead five Catholics.
The three Stevens inquiries, which produced more than one million pages of documentation, resulted in 46 convictions.
Seven of those followed the third inquiry, including Barrett, 44, who pleaded guilty to the Finucane murder but was released from jail in May last year. He is understood to be living at a secret location in England.
Stobie, 51, was charged but later acquitted of a range of offences, including killing Mr Finucane and Adam Lambert, a Protestant student murdered in 1987.
Just weeks after Stobie, a UDA quartermaster, walked free after the case against him collapsed, he was gunned down outside his north Belfast home.
As with Nelson, the PPS decided there was insufficient evidence to establish that any RUC officer either consented with Stobie in the Finucane or Lambert murders, or had knowledge at the relevant time of his alleged involvement in the killings.
Alex Maskey, Sinn Fein member of the Northern Ireland Assembly who survived a UDA gun attack at his home in west Belfast in which a close friend was shot dead in May 1993, said: “This is an absolute scandal that no action is being taken. People are being told that while the State was involved in the murders of their loved ones, no prosecution will be taken.”
“It shows the British Government is incapable of facing up their own responsibilities in all of this.”
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