Family of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane to meet UUP leader

The family of murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane are to meet Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey MP next week for the first time to discuss their case, they revealed today.

The talks with the former Stormont Economy Minister are part of a series of meetings across the political spectrum in and outside the North.

A spokesman for the family said they would raise the controversial Inquiries Act during their talks at UUP headquarters on Monday.

The Act will be used to set the terms for an inquiry ordered by the Government into the 1989 murder of the Belfast solicitor in front of his family.

Mr. Finucane was shot dead by a loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighter gang.

However a team headed by former Metropolitan Police chief John Stevens believed he was a victim of collusion between members of the security forces and loyalists.

Retired Canadian judge Peter Cory recommended separate inquiries into Mr. Finucane's murder, and three other controversial killings which resulted in the death of solicitor Rosemary Nelson, leading loyalist Billy Wright and Catholic father of two Robert Hamill.

The Finucane family, human rights campaigners and nationalist politicians, as well as Judge Cory, have expressed alarm at moves by the British government to ensure the tribunal into Mr Finucane's murder is held under the Inquiries Act which was passed this year.