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The family of murdered Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane has reacted with anger and astonishment after the British government ruled out an inquiry into his murder.
Finucane’s family met British Prime Minister David Cameron in Downing Street on Tuesday and said they felt angry and insulted at Cameron’s proposal to simply review the case.
The family called a halt to the meeting and said they would continue their campaign for an independent public inquiry in to the murder.
Finucane was shot dead in 1989 by the UFF at his north Belfast home. His family has been pressing ever since for a full public inquiry. It has long been held that members of the British security forces colluded with loyalists in his murder.
Speaking outside Number 10, Pat Finucane’s widow, Geraldine, told reporters she felt so angry she could hardly speak.
Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s meeting Mrs. Finucane said had she expected the prime minister to confirm that his government would honor the commitment given during negotiations at Weston Park in 2001 and establish an inquiry consistent with the recommendations made in the report submitted to the government by former Canadian Supreme Court Judge, Peter Cory, in 2004.
“My family and I have campaigned for a long time for a public inquiry,” she said before the meeting.
“However, we are not prepared to settle for just any form of inquiry. How the process operates is just as important as the establishment of one. We would not accept such an inquiry, and neither will the wider public who have very serious concerns about the circumstances of Pat’s murder.”
After the meeting she said: “He (David Cameron) is offering a review. He wants a QC (barrister) to read the papers in my husband’s case and that is how he expects to reach the truth. All of us are very upset and very disappointed.”
In the U.S., New York-based journalist Ed Moloney was one of the first to react to the news from London.
“Let us be clear about what has happened here. The British government has reneged on a solemn promise to fully investigate the assassination of Pat Finucane, one of the most glaring examples of security force collusion with loyalist paramilitaries during the troubles,” he said.
