THE WIDOW OF Pat Finucane, a solicitor murdered in Belfast in 1989 in his family home, will take a case calling for a full public inquiry into the crime to the UK Supreme Court today.
Finucane, a 39-year-old human rights solicitor, was shot dead in front of his three children and wife Geraldine, who was also injured, on 12 February 1989.
While the UK government in 2011 finally admitted to collusion between the loyalist paramilitaries who killed Finucane and British intelligence services, no member of the security services has ever faced prosecution.
Geraldine Finucane was granted permission last year to take an appeal to the Supreme Court questioning the decision of the UK Court of Appeal to deny the family a full inquiry.
The hearing is expected to last two days, and to deal with issues such as whether or not the denial of an inquiry may amount to a contravention of European human rights law, and whether or not the decision to hold a review into the case rather than an inquiry in 2011 amounted to a sham process, one with a predetermined outcome.
Finucane’s family had previously accused former prime minister David Cameron of reneging on a promise to hold an inquiry into accusations of state collusion.
Cameron apologised to the Finucane family in the wake of the 2011 review of the murder, and said Finucane could still be alive today had it not been for state involvement.
Geraldine Finucane, however, said the 2011 report had been drawn up without any input from her family.
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