source: BBC News
published: 9 October 2020

The government may be trying to “run down the clock” until a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane becomes pointless, the High Court has heard.

Counsel for his widow, Geraldine Finucane, claimed the delay in acting on a finding that his death has never been properly investigated is unlawful. The judge hearing her legal challenge also voiced increasing “unease” at the government response.

Mr Finucane, aged 39, was shot dead by loyalists at his Belfast home in 1989. His family has campaigned ever since for a public inquiry to establish the full scale of security force collusion in his murder.

In February 2019, the Supreme Court said none of the inquiries into Mr Finucane’s death, including the review carried out by Sir Desmond de Silva, had the capability “of establishing all the salient facts” about his killing or the liability of those who were responsible for his death.

The Supreme Court ruled there had not been a human rights-compliant inquiry into his death.

But the justices ruled out a public inquiry of the type demanded by the family and said it was for the state to decide “what form of investigation, if indeed any is now feasible, is required”.

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