25 February 1999 Edition
Calls grow for Finucane inquiry
BY Ned Kelly
The organisation representing barristers in the Six Counties, the Northern Ireland Bar Council has added it's voice to the growing demand for an inquiry into the 1989 murder of solicitor Patrick Finucane.
Bar council chairman Brian Fee QC has confirmed they are calling for a Judicial review. The latest demand comes after the British government had refused earlier calls for an inquiry into Pat Finucane's death and colluion between loyalists and crown forces on the grounds that there was no new evidence.
But the document submitted to the British and Irish governments two weeks ago by the British Irish Rights Watch on the 10th anniversary of Pat Finucane' murder offers new evidence of collusion. Last year the British government rejected a UN report's call for an inquiry saying there was no evidence.
Welcoming the Bar council's decision Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said, ``Pat Finucane is the tip of the iceberg of the collusion between British intelligence forces and loyalist killer gangs. Brian Nelson was directly involved in setting up Pat Finucane for murder. Nelson was the number one British intelligence agent inside the UDA for several years. The British government has questions to answer not only about the killing of Finucane but also about the collusion of their intelligence services with loyalists.''
``The Brian Nelson affair is Britain's `Watergate' and there is an onerous responsibility on the British government to face up to this issue.'' Added Adams, ``the role of British intelligence, in all it's guises, directly and indirectly in the killing of Republican activists and civilians is a major political scandal which London has sought to cover-up but which will not go away.''
Meanwhile two solicitors who signed the petition calling for an independent public inquiry into Finucane's murder have accused the RUC of labelling `Provo solicitors', similar to the tag Pat Finucane was labelled with.
Frank McManus, the only member of the Fermanagh Bar council to sign the petition and Pat Fahy a member of the Tyrone bar claim that RUC detectives in Lisnaskea, Castlereagh and Gough RUC barracks have labelled them as `Provo solicitors' while interrogating their clients.
McManus said that such label's were nothing new and that, ``I made endless complaints but nothing ever happened and I just got fed up complaining.'' An RUC spokesperson dismissed the claims as ``pure allegations''.
The organisation representing barristers in the Six Counties, the Northern Ireland Bar Council has added it's voice to the growing demand for an inquiry into the 1989 murder of solicitor Patrick Finucane.
Bar council chairman Brian Fee QC has confirmed they are calling for a Judicial review. The latest demand comes after the British government had refused earlier calls for an inquiry into Pat Finucane's death and colluion between loyalists and crown forces on the grounds that there was no new evidence.
But the document submitted to the British and Irish governments two weeks ago by the British Irish Rights Watch on the 10th anniversary of Pat Finucane' murder offers new evidence of collusion. Last year the British government rejected a UN report's call for an inquiry saying there was no evidence.
Welcoming the Bar council's decision Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said, ``Pat Finucane is the tip of the iceberg of the collusion between British intelligence forces and loyalist killer gangs. Brian Nelson was directly involved in setting up Pat Finucane for murder. Nelson was the number one British intelligence agent inside the UDA for several years. The British government has questions to answer not only about the killing of Finucane but also about the collusion of their intelligence services with loyalists.''
``The Brian Nelson affair is Britain's `Watergate' and there is an onerous responsibility on the British government to face up to this issue.'' Added Adams, ``the role of British intelligence, in all it's guises, directly and indirectly in the killing of Republican activists and civilians is a major political scandal which London has sought to cover-up but which will not go away.''
Meanwhile two solicitors who signed the petition calling for an independent public inquiry into Finucane's murder have accused the RUC of labelling `Provo solicitors', similar to the tag Pat Finucane was labelled with.
Frank McManus, the only member of the Fermanagh Bar council to sign the petition and Pat Fahy a member of the Tyrone bar claim that RUC detectives in Lisnaskea, Castlereagh and Gough RUC barracks have labelled them as `Provo solicitors' while interrogating their clients.
McManus said that such label's were nothing new and that, ``I made endless complaints but nothing ever happened and I just got fed up complaining.'' An RUC spokesperson dismissed the claims as ``pure allegations''.