Northern Ireland: European Court Calls Investigation
into Murder of Belfast Lawyer “Inadequate”

Background on the Finucane case

NEW YORK - The European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled today that U.K. security forces had failed to effectively investigate allegations that the Northern Irish police and the British army had played a role in the shooting death of Patrick Finucane, a Belfast solicitor who was murdered in front of his family in 1989.

“This is a further indictment of the way the U.K. government has handled this case,” said Michael McClintock, program director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. “The court has reaffirmed that the authorities chose to look the other way rather than acknowledge that members of the security forces were involved in the murder."

There is compelling evidence suggesting that members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, (Northern Ireland’s police force) and the British Army played a role in the planning, execution and subsequent cover-up of the solicitor’s murder. Finucane, a human rights lawyer who represented clients on both sides of the conflict in Northern Ireland, was apparently targeted by loyalists for representing high profile clients who were allegedly members of the IRA.

Despite the evidence suggesting the collusion of security forces in the murder, the government has yet to successfully prosecute anyone for the killing, nor has it released publicly the full results of three separate inquiries into the case.

In the court’s decision, the judges wrote that there were “serious doubts as to the thoroughness or effectiveness with which the possibility of collusion was pursued.” As for the investigations following the murder, the court said that they “failed to address serious and legitimate concerns of the family and the public and [they] cannot be regarded as providing an effective investigation into the incident or a means of identifying or leading to the prosecution of those responsible.”

The judges also ordered the British government to pay Geraldine Finucane, who was by her husband’s side when he was shot, 43,000 Euros to cover expenses related to bringing the case to the court.