Two-month delay on Pat Finucane inquiry decision ‘unacceptable’

Pat Finucane

THERE will be a delay of another two months before Secretary of State Owen Paterson decides if there should be a public inquiry into the murder in 1989 of civil rights lawyer Pat Finucane and allegations of collusion between his unionist death squad assassins and British state forces.

Sinn Féin north Belfast MLA and Junior Minister Gerry Kelly said the delay is "unacceptable".

He has called on Owen Patterson to fulfil British Government commitments and implement an inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane:

A commitment was made to establish an inquiry into Pat’s murder in 2004. It is totally unacceptable that the British Government is continuing to stall on this issue.

Pat’s family deserve truth and they deserve justice; the prolonged delay by British Secretary of State is completely unacceptable and only delays the process of truth and justice.

Pat Finucane was shot 14 times in his north Belfast home on February 12th 1989. The attack was claimed by the Ulster Defence Association/Ulster Freedom Fighters.

An RUC Special Branch agent and UDA gunman, Ken Barrett, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004 for the murder.

On his release in 2007, after serving under three years of a recommended 22-year sentence, Barrett was spirited out of Ireland to a safe haven by the British Ministry of Defence.

Another RUC agent, UDA quartermaster William Stobie – shot dead outside his Belfast home on December 12^th 2001 – was also implicated in the killing.

Earlier this year, members of An Fhirinne (The Truth) – the campaign group highlighting collusion by the British Government in the murders of nationalists and republicans killed during the conflict – picketed MI5 HQ to call for the release of all the files Whitehall's Security Service holds on the case to be released.