British Government under pressure over Cory Report

Pressure is mounting on the British Government to publish the Cory Report after the family of assassinated human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson lodged papers at the High Court in Belfast last Wednesday 28 January seeking a judicial review of the British Government's refusal to publish the report.

Retired Canadian Judge Peter Cory, who carried out investigations into the killings of lawyers Rosemary Nelson and Pat Finucane, as well as the killing of Portadown nationalist Robert Hamill and loyalist killer Billy Wright, handed his reports to the British Government in October last year.

Since then, the British Government has refused to make the reports public.

Sheila Magee, Rosemary Nelson's mother, is now seeking orders to compel the British Secretary of State Paul Murphy to publish the report and to confirm that Cory has indeed recommended a public inquiry into her daughter's death.

Magee's lawyers are also asking that the preliminary stage of the judicial review process, where a judge has to grant leave for a hearing to take place, be dispensed with.

Solicitor Colm Owens said Magee believes there has been an unconscionable delay in publishing the report. "The Secretary of State has given legal and human rights concerns as reasons for withholding publication," he said, "but in the interests of justice there is an overriding responsibility to publish without further delay."