2 December 1999 Edition

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Rosemary Nelson probe under review

BY LAURA FRIEL

The Rosemary Nelson Campaign will mark next week's International Human Rights Day by hosting the launch of a review of the Port Investigation into the Lurgan defence lawyer's assassination. The report compiled by Jane Winters of the British Irish Rights Watch is believed to highlight a series of criticisms of the current investigation being carried out by British Deputy Chief Constable, Colin Port. The Norfolk policemen has responsibility for ``the day to day control, direction and command'' of the murder investigation.

Rosemary Nelson died when a device placed under the car she was driving exploded on the afternoon of 15 March last. The murder followed in the wake of persistent intimidation, including death threats, against the solicitor by the RUC. The attack took place against the backdrop of unprecedented Crown force activity in the weeks and days leading up to the killing and around the immediate vicinity of the Nelson's family home.

The parallels between the murder of Rosemary Nelson and that of Belfast defence lawyer Pat Finucane ten years earlier and the allegations of collusion which have accompanied both killings remain a defining aspect of the case. From the outset, the Nelson family have said that the truth about Rosemary's death will only be established through a fully independent international inquiry. Eight months into the Port investigation and no arrests to date, lend even greater credence to the family's initial assertion.

Hoping to attend the launch will be the national co ordinator Ed Lynch of the American Bar Association, an organisation which represents around 300,000 US lawyers. The association recently called on the British government to remove the RUC from all participation in the investigations of the assassination of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson.

In a recent letter to the Washington-based British minister Michael Arthur, the director of the Association, Robert Evans, expressed the continuing concern of American lawyers to the apparent contempt shown by certain members of the security forces towards defence solicitors in the North of Ireland.

The Association's comments followed a report by the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (LCHR), which recently published two reports charging continuing intimidation of defence lawyers by the RUC. The U.S. investigative team has claimed that a number of RUC officers have threatened two Belfast-based solicitors since the death of Rosemary Nelson.

After Rosemary's death, RUC Chief Ronnie Flanagan said he would not tolerate his officers threatening lawyers. James Brosnahan of the LCHR said that after the murder of Rosemary Nelson, ``those making the threats would have learnt their lesson and stopped, but the practice appears to be continuing''.

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