Pressure mounts for public inquiry in Finucane case

The British government is facing new demands to call an international judicial inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Mr…

The British government is facing new demands to call an international judicial inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Mr Pat Finucane.

With his widow Geraldine due to have talks later today - the 14th anniversary of the killing - and a Canadian judge investigating the loyalist paramilitary assassination, campaigners claim the case for a public hearing is overwhelming.

Former colleague Mr Peter Madden and Ms Jane Winter of the London-based British Irish Rights Watch will also be part of a delegation meeting in Belfast with Judge Peter Cory.

He was appointed by the British and Irish Governments to investigate killings involving allegations of collusion by the security forces with paramilitaries on both sides of the Irish border.

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Mr Finucane was shot dead in front of his family at their north Belfast home by the Ulster Defence Association, but even though police have a list of suspects of the men they believe were involved, no-one has ever been convicted of the murder.

Mrs Finucane is to press her demands for an international inquiry when she also meets with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, in Dublin tomorrow.

A report by the London Metropolitan Commissioner Sir John Stevens' investigation into the murder has been delayed until later this year. But Mrs Finucane is unhappy with the hold-up and the Cory investigation.

In advance of her meeting with the judge today, a family spokesman said: "She will be highlighting the overwhelming case for a full, public, independent international inquiry, and to raise her concerns with him regarding his present investigation."

Judge Cory met Mrs Finucane in Dublin last year after he was appointed to investigate a series of controversial murders.

They include the IRA deaths of Lord Justice Maurice Gibson and his wife Lady Cecily Gibson who were blown up by a bomb in April 1987,

He is also examining the cases of loyalist Billy Wright, shot dead by republicans inside the Maze Prison in December l997, the loyalist murder of Catholic solicitor Rosemary Nelson in March l999, the murders of two senior police officers gunned down in an IRA ambush and the murder of Catholic Mr Robert Hamill, kicked to death by loyalist in Portadown, Co Armagh in l997.

PA