Widow angry over delay to public inquiry into shooting of solicitor

THE FAMILY of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane has accused the government of stalling on a decision to hold a public inquiry into one of the most infamous killings carried out during the Northern Ireland Troubles.

The murdered lawyer's widow, Geraldine Finucane, said Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Owen Paterson, had earlier this year promised he was close to a decision on the case, but she said the issue had been delayed without proper explanation.

The Army, police and intelligence service have been implicated in the 1989 murder, which was carried out by loyalist paramilitaries who included security force agents among their ranks. In a surprise move it emerged in January that Mr Paterson had initiated talks with the bereaved family in a bid to bring closure to the long-running case.

But Mrs Finucane said: "The Secretary of State, Owen Patterson, told me in March this year that he would make his decision after the Northern Ireland Assembly elections (in May] as he was in the final stages of taking that decision."

She said she was disappointed by his handling of the issue and accused Mr Paterson of failing to keep "his promise".

Mr Finucane was a high-profile solicitor in Northern Ireland in the 1980s and his clients included defendants accused of involvement in the IRA.

He was labelled a republican sympathiser, or even an IRA member. Members of the loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a covername for the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), shot the solicitor 14 times in front of his wife and three children.