Finucane Family Await Inquiry Decision

The family of murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane have called for 'transparency' should an inquiry be launched into his death.

"The British Government must be fully transparent if they choose to launch an inquiry into my father’s murder," said John Finucane.

John Finucane and other family members are due to meet the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, at Downing Street today.

They are urging for a full independent inquiry into the 1989 loyalist shooting in hopes that the government will come clean after persistent fears of security force collusion with the murderers.

Mr Finucane's widow, Geraldine, said she would not settle for anything less than an inquiry that was public, effective and independent.

John Finucane said: "If the inquiry is independent we do not expect every decision to go our way but we do expect the (British) government to have some degree of integrity in the way in which it approaches the inquiry. The inquiry should be as transparent as possible."

Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Owen Patterson will also meet with the family during the meeting.

He has said that the British Government will reach a decision about the Finucane case "soon" but it was "difficult and complex".

The government have said they hope the Finucane family will be satisfied with their response.

The Background

Mr Finucane, a Catholic solicitor, was shot dead by loyalists while eating his Sunday dinner in 1989.

His killing was one of the most controversial during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Finucane came to prominence due to successfully challenging the British Government over several important human rights cases in the 1980s.

Pat Finucane's best-known client was the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. He also represented other IRA and Irish National Liberation Army hunger strikers who died during the 1981 Maze prison protest, Brian Gillen and the widow of Gervaise McKerr, one of three men shot dead by the RUC in a so-called "shoot-to-kill" incident in 1982.

In 1988 he represented Pat McGeown who was charged in connection with the Corporals killings.

Mr Finucane was shot 14 times as he sat eating a meal at his Belfast home with his three children and wife, who was wounded in the attack.

His killing was widely suspected by human rights groups to have been perpetrated in collusion with officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and, in 2003, the British Government Steven's Report stated that the killing was indeed carried out with the collusion of police in Northern Ireland.

The Ulster Defence Association/Ulster Freedom Fighters (UDA/UFF) claimed they killed the 39-year-old solicitor because he was a high-ranking officer in the IRA.

Police at his inquest said they had no evidence to support this claim. Finucane had represented republicans in many high profile cases, but he had also represented loyalists.

Several members of his family had republican links, but the family strongly denied Finucane was a member of the IRA

In September 2004 UDA member and security force informer, Ken Barrett, pleaded guilty to his murder.

(LB/BMcC)