MI5 involvement in lawyer murder case sparks secrecy fears

Nationalist politicians expressed concern today that MI5 could use a decision to give it full legal representation at an inquiry into the murder of a human rights lawyer in Northern Ireland to suppress sensitive documents.

The Rosemary Nelson Inquiry ruled yesterday the security services would be granted the status of a full participant in public hearings into allegations of security force collusion in the 1999 murder of the 40-year-old solicitor in a loyalist car bomb outside her home in Lurgan, Co Armagh.