After their legal action to force the publication of the Cory Report was put on ice for three weeks, the Finucane family’s lawyers have to cross the first hurdle in a bid to get a public inquiry set up immediately.
They argued that the right to a public inquiry was a separate issue from the failure to publish the Cory Report, and that both cases centered on London’s delay in fulfilling its promises.
During a brief hearing, April 22 was set for a full hearing. It comes a week after the same judge adjourned for three weeks separate legal action against London’s decision not to publish the report.
It’s thought that, to avoid embarrassment in Washington during the annual St. Patrick’s Day events, London will shortly announce a date for the Cory Report to be published, although this will be some way off.
Tony Blair, the British prime minister, is due to be honored at an Ireland America Fund dinner in Washington on March 16. Northern Secretary Paul Murphy will receive the award on his behalf.
The Finucane family’s lawyers, those acting for a second murdered solicitor, Rosemary Nelson, who was killed five years ago this Monday, and those representing loyalist Billy Wright have already said London’s foot-dragging is unlawful.
Retired Canadian supreme court judge, Peter Cory, examined allegations of collusion surrounding four controversial killings and recommended public inquiries into all of them.
The Irish government published the two reports it received, but the British government said it is still considering the legal, human rights and security implications of publishing.
Commenting on what he called “Tony Blair’s evasive response” in the House of Commons, in response to demands for its publication, the SDLP policing spokesman, Alex Attwood said he had “ducked the question and answered only in vague generalities.”
Blair had, said Attwood, “promised an unambiguous commitment to hold public inquiries into all cases where Judge Cory recommends them. He has to honor that commitment in full.”
Meanwhile, the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Hugh Orde, has accused the IRA and the UDA of each carrying out more than 50 punishment beatings and shootings in the last year.
At around the same time Sinn F