UK government to announce decision on public inquiry into Finucane murder

By David Young, PA

The UK government is set to make a statement later in relation to whether a public inquiry will be ordered into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.

Mr Finucane, 39, was shot dead in his family home in north Belfast in February 1989 by the Ulster Defence Association in an attack found by a series of probes to have involved collusion with the state.

His widow Geraldine and the couple’s three children have been campaigning for decades for a public inquiry to establish the extent of security force involvement.

In 2019, the Supreme Court said all previous examinations of the death had not been compliant with human rights standards.

The court acknowledged Mrs Finucane had been given an “unequivocal undertaking” by the UK government following the 2001 Weston Park agreement that there would be a public inquiry into the murder.

However, the Supreme Court judges found that the UK government had been justified in later deciding against holding one.

The court said it was up to the government to decide what form of investigation was now required.

The following year, the government pushed back a decision on a public inquiry, insisting outstanding issues concerning the original police investigation needed to be first examined by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland.

In the years since, Mrs Finucane has pursued further legal proceedings challenging the ongoing delays on a decision.

During the summer, the Court of Appeal in Belfast gave the UK government a September deadline to confirm what form of human rights-compliant investigation it intended to undertake into the murder.

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn, who will make an oral statement in the Commons, met with members of the Finucane family in Belfast on Tuesday evening.