Amnesty urges judges to boycott North's murder inquiries

Senior British judges faced new demands today to boycott an inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.

Amnesty International UK claimed the investigation would be a sham.

UK director Kate Allen said: “The (British) government will be able to control what the public finds out, and what it doesn’t.”

Preliminary hearings have already been held in advance of full investigations into two other loyalist killings of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson and Catholic Robert Hamill.

The government has also given the go-ahead for a separate probe into the murder of loyalist paramilitary chief Billy Wright, shot dead by republicans inside the Maze Prison.

A date is likely to be set later this year for the start of that inquiry.

But Amnesty International claims a fourth investigation – the murder of Mr Finucane which unlike the other three, was set up under the Inquiries Act 2005 - would lack independence and be largely controlled by the British government, with crucial evidence being withheld.

The human rights organisation has launched a web appeal as part of its developing campaign to persuade senior members of the judiciary to stay away from the Finucane probe.

Earlier this year, Mr Finucane’s widow Geraldine wrote individually to every senior judge in England, Scotland and Wales and urged them to boycott any inquiry after confirmation of security force collusion with her husband’s loyalist paramilitary killers.

Today Mr Finucane’s son Michael said: “My family is unhappy that an inquiry into the murder should be established under the Inquiries Act because the Act provides the government with control of the inquiry as opposed to the inquiry panel itself.

“It is not independent as an inquiry should be, nor do we believe that it will be allowed to work independently. For those reasons we will not co-operate with any inquiry established under the Inquiries Act.”

Mr Finucane was gunned down in front of his family in their North Belfast home in 1989 by members of the loyalist Ulster Defence Association.

In the years since, there have been repeated claims of security force collusion with the killers, and retired Canadian Judge Peter Cory told the Government in a report published last year that there was enough suspicion of collusion to merit a public inquiry.

The Finucane murder was one of a series Judge Cory examined and recommended for public inquiry because of collusion suspicions.

The first inquiry to be set up, that into the murder of Co Armagh Catholic solicitor Rosemary Nelson by loyalist bombers in 1999, held its opening session on April 19.

Judge Cory said there should also be public inquiries into the murders of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy “King Rat” Wright who was shot dead by the INLA in 1997 and Catholic man Robert Hamill who was beaten to death by a mob in Portadown in 1997.

Ms Allen called on people to write to senior judges to voice their concerns over the legislation.

“Any judge presiding over an inquiry into the Finucane murder under the Inquiries Act 2005 would be presiding over a sham. We urge judges not to sit on any such inquiry,” Ms Allen said.

“By rushing through this Act, the government has placed itself beyond public scrutiny and dealt a massive blow to any hopes of transparency in government.”

Both Judge Cory and Lord Saville, who conducted the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, came out against the terms of the Inquiries Bill when it was before the British parliament and said they would not sit on an inquiry set up under its terms.