US lawyers to call for Finucane inquiry

An influential committee of US lawyers is to release a report in Belfast this morning, demanding a full public inquiry into the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane.

The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights report coincides with the 13th anniversary of Mr Finucane's killing by loyalists at his north Belfast home in 1989.

The main recommendation of the report is expected to state that the proposed appointment of a judge to decide whether an inquiry was necessary is a waste of time.

The group of lawyers has already interviewed a former RUC officer, who claims that the RUC decided not to prosecute Mr Finucane's killer in order to recruit him as an informer.

They say a former British army agent also told them that the authorities knew in advance that Mr Finucane was to be assassinated.

The only man to be charged over the murder was himself shot dead by loyalists after his trial collapsed.