Adams says Pat Finucane was murdered at British govt's behest

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has accused the British government of deliberately trying to prevent the truth about the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane from reaching the public domain.

Mr Adams described Britain’s appointment of a judge to decide whether a public inquiry into the murder is feasible as a cynical, stone-walling tactic. He said all the evidence in the case suggests that the solicitor, who defended the human rights of many Provisional IRA members, was murdered at the behest of the British government.

The Sinn Fein leader said the evidence of collusion between the UDA, the RUC and the British army prior to the murder is so comprehensive that the killing could not have been carried out without the advance knowledge of senior British politicians.

Mr Finucane was shot dead in front of his family in north Belfast in 1989.

The former UDA man who supplied the gun used in the attack has revealed how he gave the RUC Special Branch advance warning about the planned killing, but they did nothing to prevent it.

William Stobie also said he gave the RUC the name of the man who organised the attack and told them where the murder weapon was dumped, but they did nothing to investigate these leads.