Finucane family call for public inquiry

Truth about father's murder 'could rock British state'
The three children of solicitor Pat Finucane issued a fresh appeal to Tony Blair yesterday to set up a public inquiry into his murder, in the wake of fresh allegations of security force collusion in his death.

Michael, John and Katherine held an emotional press conference in the Belfast offices of the law firm their father founded.

They told of the pain of watching a reconstruction of his killing in a BBC Panorama documentary, and hearing a loyalist paramilitary say an RUC officer had urged him to shoot Mr Finucane, claiming he was a top IRA man. The family, and police at his inquest, strongly denied this.

Michael, Katherine, and John were 17, 12, and nine when their father was shot in front of them and their mother, Geraldine, as the family ate Sunday dinner in their north Belfast home in 1989.

Michael Finucane, now 30, and a Dublin-based solicitor, said the prime minister seemed reluctant to uncover the whole truth about the murder, which he claimed could "rock the foundations of the British state".

He said: "It prides itself on being the epitome of law and order, yet right here in its own backyard it is being accused of the most serious crimes a government can be accused of, the assassination of its own citizens."

The Finucane family believes the three year investigation led by Metropolitan police chief Sir John Stevens, and the new inquiry by a government-appointed judge, Peter Cory, a Canadian, are inadequate. It insists that only a public inquiry can resolve the many unanswered questions about special branch and army intelligence involvement.

Sir John is due to complete his report in the next few weeks, and is expected to conclude that there was widespread collusion in Mr Finucane's death but will say that there is no suggestion the killing was officially sanctioned by the government, or the police, or the army hierarchy.

But Michael Finucane said that, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, he was prepared to believe that the conspiracy might have gone right to Downing Street, and that an inquiry should not balk at calling the former prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, to find out what she knew.

"The longer it goes on, the more it will fester," he said. Tony Blair's administration had no part in his father's murder, he said, but by delaying a public inquiry, the prime minister was now "part of the problem".

Mr Finucane said he was not surprised that loyalist Ken Barrett, who made the admission that a policeman urged him to kill Pat Finucane, had never been charged with his murder, as the authorities had known about Barrett for 10 years. Barrett fled to England in December where he is in protective custody while being questioned by the Stevens team.

Mr Finucane said criminal prosecutions had too limited a remit, and "many, many people" had questions to answer.