Orwellian ‘truth’ body to be handed Sean Brown case

Britain’s so-called ‘Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery’ (ICRIR) has been expanded to become a ‘Ministry for Truth’, with some 26 former RUC members, British soldiers and other Crown Force staff joining scores of civil servants to create a pro-British version of events in controversial cases.

Despite being rejected by all sides of the community in the north of Ireland, the ICRIR began operating last year after the Labour government in London made a u-turn on a promise to scrap the Tory Legacy Acy.

One of its planned strategies is to veto the release of information to relatives of victims, a plan which the courts have ruled is not compatible with human rights laws.

The controversial body’s chief commissioner is former Chief Justice Declan Morgan, while former RUC Special Branch chief Peter Sheridan heads its ‘investigations’.

Despite a Freedom of Information request from the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), the ICRIR has refused to say how many former British military are now on its books, describing it only as “a very low number”.

The ‘truth’ body has also refused to say how many former “members of the intelligence and security services” are operating within the ICRIR.

It has also refused to release any information on the number of live investigations and deaths where it is known the deceased died as a “result of the use of lethal force by the security forces”.

Daniel Holder, CAJ director, said the figures raise new concerns about “fundamental conflicts of interest” in legacy investigations.

“There is no clean way of separating ‘state involvement’ cases from cases where there is no state culpability until you have actually completed an investigation,” he said.

“The involvement of an informant may only become apparent at a late stage of an investigation for example.”

Sinn Féin MP John Finucane called on the London government to provide certainty to conflict victims and end the state of limbo they have been left in since Labour came to power.

He was commenting after he and party vice president Michelle O’Neill met British Direct Ruler Hilary Benn in Belfast to discuss legacy issues.

After the meeting, Mr Finucane said there was a need for families to have a route to seek truth and justice.

“Today was an opportunity for us to reiterate and speak on behalf of those families that have been treated disgracefully by the Legacy Act and that have been left in limbo really since Labour came into government last July,” he told reporters.

“Those families who have had their inquests halted, those families who have uncertainty and who, after many years, still find themselves in a position where they don’t know if they will receive truth and justice.”

Mr Finucane said he and Ms O’Neill also raised the case of murdered Gaelic sports official Sean Brown.

Britain has applied for a Supreme Court appeal on judicial rulings that compel him to establish a public inquiry into the 1997 collusion murder.

The prominent nationalist was ambushed, kidnapped and murdered as he locked the gates of the club in May 1997, as peace negotiations in the conflict were moving towards an agreement.

No-one has ever been convicted of his killing, but it is known that British agents were involved.

Mr Finucane said: “We made it very clear in the meeting that on behalf of Sean Brown’s family that there needs to be a full public inquiry established and announced without any further delay.

“We talked about the fact that five High Court judges here have endorsed consistently the family’s position and we criticised without any equivocation his (Benn’s) decision to take this family, to take Bridie Brown (Mr Brown’s 87-year-old widow) and her family to London for an appeal.”

Last month thousands of GAA members, including association president Jarlath Burns, held a ‘walk for truth’ through Mr Brown’s home village.

However, on Tuesday it was confirmed by Benn in writing that he will refuse to abide by the direction of the High Court to convene a public inquiry, instead seeking to place the matter in the hands of the bogus ICRIR.

Mr Brown’s daughter, Clare Loughran said Benn had “treated all of us with disregard and disrespect.

“We continue to ask what are you trying to hide?”

The treatment of the family has been branded “a shameless defiance of the rule of law and represents utter contempt for the highest court in this jurisdiction” by Siobhan Brown, another daughter.

“Our mother directly pleaded with Hilary Benn not to trail her to London, we asked him to respect the court and to do what the courts had directed him to do,” she said.

She said that the news that the ICRIR was “stacked” with former RUC and British soldiers further confirmed the family’s “sincere belief that the ICRIR is infrastructurally prohibited from being able to get to the truth of what happened to our father.

“Despite this, the Secretary of State has yet again proposed that we engage with this discredited body.”

Ms Brown added her family will “regroup and regalvanise and will contest our family’s entitlement to a public inquiry, as directed by five judges of our High Court”.

The family’s solicitor Niall Murphy, of KRW Law, said Mr Benn “continues to defy the judicial decisions of the coroner, the judicial review court and the Court of Appeal, the highest court in this jurisdiction.

“Despite all its public pronouncements, this Labour government by its actions continues to demonstrate that it does not recognise or believe in the rule of law, their treatment of the Brown family has been contemptible.

“By contrast, the Brown family are now ready and determined to vindicate their rights in the Supreme Court, the highest court of law in the UK.”

Urgent Appeal