Northern Ireland: Release of Updated Report
on U.K. Security Force Involvement in the Murder of Patrick Finucane
NEW YORK—The Lawyers Committee today released an updated report
on state involvement in the murder of Patrick Finucane, a prominent
human rights lawyer known for representing people arrested under Northern
Ireland’s anti-terrorism laws.
Finucane was killed 14 years ago today, when masked gunmen broke into
his Belfast home and shot him 14 times in front of his wife and three
children. Although the Ulster Defense Association (UDA), a loyalist
paramilitary group, claimed responsibility for the killing, strong
evidence has emerged linking three separate U.K. intelligence agencies
to the murder. Despite this, the U.K. government has resisted establishing
a public inquiry into the case, and no-one has been successfully prosecuted
for the killing.
“The U.K. government’s failure to publicly uncover
the truth in the Finucane case has undercut its commitment to fundamental
principles of democratic accountability—principles central
to the Northern Ireland peace process,” said Fiona Doherty,
a Senior Associate at the Lawyers Committee.
The report, Beyond Collusion: The U.K. Security Forces and
the Murder of Patrick Finucane, provides a comprehensive account
of the Finucane case on the 14th anniversary of his murder. Drawing
on Lawyers Committee’s investigative missions to Northern
Ireland, the report pieces together the extensive evidence of collusion
that has emerged in the many years since the killing. The trail
of evidence leads to:
The Army’s Force Research Unit (FRU):
This covert unit of the British Army infiltrated an agent into the
UDA’s intelligence structure. According to multiple sources,
this agent passed a picture of Finucane to the UDA murder team several
days before the killing and drove one of its members past Finucane’s
house. The FRU tried to conceal these activities from independent
police officers tasked with investigating security force collusion
with paramilitaries in Northern Ireland.
MI5: The U.K. agency responsible for domestic
security reportedly had daily access to FRU files and was fully
aware of its illegal activities. The then-head of the FRU reportedly
confirmed that he gave MI5 officers regular briefings on the agent’s
activities within the UDA.
Special Branch of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC):
The intelligence wing of the RUC (now Police Service of Northern
Ireland) had several agents within the UDA. One of these agents
was William Stobie, who was instructed by his UDA superiors to
supply guns for the murder. Stobie said that he gave his Special
Branch handlers enough information to prevent the murder (and
in the aftermath to quickly apprehend the killers and seize the
murder weapons). A former member of the UDA, who confessed to
being one of the two gunmen in the murder, has claimed that a
Special Branch officer actively assisted the murder gang on the
night of the killing.
Printed versions of this report are available from our offices
in New York and Washington, D.C.
Click
here to read the full report
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