Amnesty International

Hi -

This week we've got a shocking story from right on our doorstep. Twenty years ago today, while he was sat eating dinner with his wife and children, Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries.

Since then, extensive and compelling evidence that UK state agents were involved in the killing and subsequent cover-up. In 2003 a man was charged and found guilty of his murder but because Kenneth Barrett, a former loyalist paramilitary, pleaded guilty to 12 charges against him, little information came to light at the trial.

The Finucane family still don’t know who was really behind the killing. They have a right to know.

In those twenty years, successive UK governments have done their utmost to stop the truth getting out. In 2005 they passed the Inquiries Act, which effectively quashes any chance of an independent public inquiry. An inquiry under the Act would be controlled by the government, who could pick the chair and those who sit on it, decide which bits are held behind close doors, and censor any report they produce. Hardly a “public” inquiry.

The implications of the Act are much more wide-ranging, of course. It would allow this and any future UK government to hold a ‘sham’ inquiry into any issue that might cause embarrassment – train crashes, industrial accidents, police abuses, UK involvement in torture or rendition, the list goes on.

Today, Amnesty International launched a global campaign urging Gordon Brown and the Northern Ireland Secretary to hold a genuinely-independent public inquiry into the killing of Patrick Finucane. You’ll find more info here and the action here – do spread the word or share your views on my blogs here and here.

Until next time,

Steve
Amnesty’s Project Blog team