Plea to Brandon Lewis for public inquiry into Pat Finucane murder
Amnesty International called today (Wednesday) for a public inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.
And it has written to Secretary of State Brandon Lewis to set up – as the end-of-month deadline approaches.
Mr Finucane (39), was shot in front of his family in 1989 by loyalist paramilitaries.
His family have campaigned ever since for a public inquiry to establish the full scale of security force collusion. acting in collusion with the British security forces.
Amnesty warned in the letter that it is vital for public confidence in the rule of law that the Government now moves swiftly to discharge its responsibilities in establishing an independent public inquiry following the Supreme Court ruling.
In the letter Amnesty UK Director Kate Allen, said Mr Finucane’s murder was “one of the darkest chapters of this country’s recent history.”
And she added: “It falls to you, as Northern Ireland Secretary of State, to help close that chapter by setting up the public inquiry which the UK Government long ago promised.
“Evidence of collusion can only be fully and impartially investigated by a judicial inquiry which has full powers of subpoena of witnesses and disclosure of documents.
“The Government’s failure, after 31 years, to establish an independent judicial inquiry into the full circumstances of the murder, fuel the perception of a continued cover-up of the full extent of official involvement in the killing.”