Northern Ireland: Widow of Pat Finucane to issue fresh proceedings over inquiry refusal
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Pat Finucane
The widow of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane has issued fresh proceedings in the High Court in Belfast three months after the UK government refused to order a fresh public inquiry into the 1998 killing.
The UK Supreme Court ruled in February 2019 that the state had failed to deliver an Article 2 compliant investigation into the death of Mr Finucane, who was shot and killed by loyalist paramilitaries in collusion with UK security forces.
The government did not respond until December 2020, when it said it would not establish a public inquiry and highlighted an ongoing “review process” within the PSNI and investigations by the Police Ombudsman.
However, the PSNI subsequently said there are “no new lines of inquiry” and the Police Ombudsman said the murder was “not central to any of our ongoing investigations”, which human rights campaigners said challenged the government’s explanation.
Geraldine Finucane, represented by Madden & Finucane Solicitors, has now lodged new proceedings in the High Court.
Solicitor Peter Madden, representing Mrs Finucane, said the PSNI “has yet to correspond substantively” with him since December.
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which supervises the executive of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), will also examine the Finucane case this week.
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