The British government has refused "on security grounds" to disclose the identity of the governor in charge of the Maze prison on the morning the LVF leader, Billy Wright, was shot dead by three INLA prisoners in December 1997.
The refusal to identify the prison official came in a response by the North's Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, to a parliamentary question tabled by the Ulster Unionist MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson.
The MP asked the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, to "name the duty governor who was in charge of the HMP Maze on December 27th, 1997".
In response, Mr Ingram said: "On security grounds, I am not prepared to name the governor in question."
The response has enraged Wright's father, David, who has for the past two years been campaigning to have a public inquiry held into the circumstances of his son's murder.
Mr Wright alleges the killing was "state-sanctioned, state-orchestrated and state-sponsored".
"The refusal to name this individual prompts me to ask, what is it about this mystery governor that makes it imperative that his identity remains secret and just exactly which agency of the British government does he work for?" Mr Wright said yesterday. "The identities of the Maze governors on December 24th, 25th, 26th and 28th, 1997, are already public knowledge. I want to know what prevents Mr Peter Mandelson naming the duty governor of December 27th, 1997."
Mr Wright went on to say that by not calling the "mystery duty governor" to give evidence at the inquest into his son's death held in February 1999, the coroner, Mr John Leckey, failed to abide by legislation set out in the North's Prison and Young Offenders Centre rules of 1995.
"The Prison Rules clearly state, `The governor shall attend any inquest following the death of a prisoner in his custody' ", Mr Wright said.
"No governor was called to give evidence at the inquest. By not calling the duty governor, the coroner failed to implement the law, and as such the inquest must be declared null and void".
Mr Wright said he believed both the RUC and the coroner were aware of the identity of the duty governor as both parties had visited the Maze murder scene before the inquest. An application for a writ of "judicial authority" to examine the inquest files has been made by Mr Wright.
The move comes at a time when 10 prison officers, on duty in the Maze when Billy Wright was shot, have begun legal proceedings for damages against the Northern Ireland Office. The prison officers claim Wright's murder was avoidable.
A report by the London-based human rights group, British-Irish Rights Watch on the murder of Wright is expected to be published in early September.