Public inquiry announced into collusion killing of Pat Finucane

A public inquiry is to be held into the brutal assassination by British agents of Belfast defence lawyer Pat Finucane in front of his family in 1989.

The inquiry was announced this afternoon at Westminster, thirty five years after the killing took place, and two decades after it was approved in a report commissioned for the British government by Canadian Judge Peter Cory.

Three weeks after he and other nationalist lawyers were described as “unduly sympathetic” to the IRA by former British Home Secretary Douglas Hogg, the 39-year-old was shot at point blank by a masked gang at his home in Belfast.

It is now accepted that the British army’s murderous ‘Force Research Unit’ directed its agent Brian Nelson to carry out the killing with the aid of other British agents in a UDA paramilitary death squad.

No proper human-rights compliant investigation has ever taken place.

State collusion in the killing has been increasingly admitted amid decades of legal wrangling in desperate British efforts to prevent a proper investigation as required under international law.

The inquiry was finally announced by British Direct Ruler Hilary Benn in a statement to the Westminster parliament today (Wednesday).

It is a historic and full vindication of the campaign by the family, led by his widow Geraldine.

Responding in a statement today, Mr Finucane’s son John, now a Sinn Féin MP, said: “Today is for my father, Pat Finucane.

“The announcement that there will now be a public inquiry into his murder is very much welcomed by our family.

“Led by my mother Geraldine, we have campaigned for decades to uncover the truth behind my father’s murder.

“I want to thank every person who has supported our campaign throughout those years. Today belongs to us all.

“After 35 years of cover-ups, it is now time for truth.”

Urgent Appeal