Pat Finucane was murdered by the UDA in front of his family in their North
Belfast home in 1989. A report last year by retired Canadian Judge Peter
Cory found evidence that elements within the RUC special branch and British
army intelligence were involved in the killing. Cory recommended that a
full-blown public inquiry be held into Finucane's death.
Britain's Northern Ireland secretary, Paul Murphy, agreed last year to hold
an inquiry into the murder but indicated, because of national security
concerns, new legislation would have to be drafted.
Last month, Cory criticized the plans in a letter to a Congressional
committee stating the new legislation would make a meaningful inquiry
impossible.
The Inquiries Bill was rushed through its final stages in Westminster on April 7
despite the strong objections of NGOs, the legal community and the family of human
rights lawyer Pat Finucane.
Finucane widow urges judges to shun inquiry
Clare Dyer, legal editor,
The Guardian, April 14, 2005
"If the new act were to be come law, I would advise all Canadian judges to
decline an appointment in light of the impossible situation they would be
facing. In fact, I cannot contemplate any self-respecting Canadian judge
accepting an appointment to an inquiry constituted under the new proposed
act,"
(the Canadian Judge Cory, who has found massive evidence
of state collusion in four controversial killings he examined. One of them
was the murder of Pat Finucane in 1989)
Geraldine Finucane, widow of the murdered Northern Ireland human rights
solicitor Patrick Finucane, has written to all senior judges in England,
Wales and Scotland, asking them to refuse to sit on any inquiry into her
husband's death under new legislation.
Lord Saville, who chaired the Bloody Sunday inquiry, has criticised the
Inquiries Act 2005, which allows ministers to issue notices stopping certain
evidence from being given in public and restricting publication in the
public interest.
The act replaces the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921 which gives
chairmen a free hand.
Lord Saville has told Baroness Ashton, minister in the department of
constitutional affairs, in a letter: "This provision makes a very serious
inroad into the independence of any inquiry; and is likely to damage or
destroy public confidence in the inquiry and its findings, especially in any
case where the conduct of the authorities may be in question.
"As a judge, I must tell you that I would not be prepared to be appointed as
a member of an inquiry that was subject to a provision of this kind."
The Canadian judge Peter Cory was appointed by the British and Irish
governments to investigate allegations of collusion in Mr Finucane's murder.
He concluded in 2003 that there was "strong evidence that collusive acts
were committed" by the army, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the security
service, and that a public inquiry was needed.
A British government official told the UN Commission for Human Rights in
Geneva last week that a public inquiry would be held into Mr Finucane's
murder, but that most witnesses would give evidence in private.
However, Judge Cory told the US Congressional hearings into human rights in
Northern Ireland last month, before the act became law: "It seems to me that
the proposed new act would make a meaningful inquiry impossible. The
minister, the actions of whose ministry was to be reviewed by the public
inquiry, would have the authority to thwart the efforts of the inquiry at
every step.
"It really creates an intolerable Alice in Wonderland situation. There have
been references in the press to an international judicial membership in the
inquiry.
"If the new act were to be come law, I would advise all Canadian judges to
decline an appointment in light of the impossible situation they would be
facing. In fact, I cannot contemplate any self-respecting Canadian judge
accepting an appointment to an inquiry constituted under the new proposed
act," he said.
In her letter, Mrs Finucane cites the views of Lord Saville and Judge Cory
and asks the judges: "In view of these considerations I write to request
that, if approached to serve on an Inquiries Act Inquiry into my husband's
murder, you, like Lord Saville and Judge Cory, refuse to accept such an
appointment."
Lorna Davidson, of British Irish Rights Watch, said: "The minister can
prevent particular witnesses' evidence from being given in public and any
evidence could be expunged from the final report.
"The fear is that any witnesses who might say anything remotely damaging or
controversial might be heard in private, so we'd never get to know what they
actually said."
A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Office said: "The government is clear
that the Inquiries Act provides the best way for a Finucane inquiry to
proceed efficiently and effectively in a way which takes into account both
the wider public interest and the public interest in national security.
"Absolutely nothing will be withheld from the person chairing the inquiry or
the inquiry team."
