NOVANEWS
Belfast Telegraph
/>BY CLAIRE WILLIAMSON
A mural to mark 25 years since the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane has been unveiled in west Belfast.
The Belfast lawyer was shot dead by loyalist gunmen at his north Belfast home on February 12, 1989 as he sat down to dinner with his wife and children.
In December 2012 a report into Mr Finucane’s death – ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron and headed up by Sir Desmond de Silva QC – found that agents of the State were involved in the murder and that there were “shocking” levels of collusion.
Sir Desmond’s review of the murder of the Catholic father-of-three found that collusion by the State went beyond a failure to prevent the crime.
/>Following release of the report David Cameron told the House of Commonsthat the murder was “an appalling crime” and said the degree of collusion exposed was “unacceptable”.
He said, in a message to the family: “I am deeply sorry.”
In a statement yesterday Human Rights group Amnesty Internationalsaid the Government’s failure to hold an independent public inquiry into his death is “not only cruel, but positively sinister”.
Amnesty International’s NI director Patrick Corrigan said: “It is vital for public confidence that this anniversary prompts a rethink over denying the Finucane family an independent public inquiry.”
Mr Finucane’s son John told Amnesty: “The past remains a divisive and caustic issue in our society today. The British Government have added to this deep sense of mistrust when they continue to renege on their promise to enact a full public inquiry into his killing.
“We continue to feel the deep personal loss even after 25 years, yet we remain convinced the best way to honour what my father stood for in life, and in death, is to continue our campaign for truth and justice.”
