Pat Finucane

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Patrick Finucane (born March 21, 1949 , † February 12, 1989 in Belfast ) was a Northern Irish lawyer who was shot by loyalist paramilitaries . The circumstances surrounding Finucane's assassination are part of an ongoing controversy over the cooperation between members of the British security forces and loyalist paramilitaries during the Northern Ireland conflict .

Life

The son of a mill worker grew up with seven siblings in the Catholic nationalist area of ​​the Falls Road in the west of the Northern Irish capital Belfast. In the late 1960s he began studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Finucane first studied English and philosophy ; later he switched to law . At university he met a woman from a Protestant Belfast family, whom he married in 1970. The marriage had three children. Finucane's son John was elected to the British House of Commons for Sinn Féin in 2019 .

Finucane's parents had moved to a house in the predominantly loyalist area of Shankill Road in the spring of 1968 . During the riot in August 1969 that led to the deployment of the British Army , the family fled to Falls Road after a loyalist mob tried to break into the house. In the 1970s, three younger Finucanes brothers joined the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA): John Finucane died in a car accident in 1972 during an IRA mission. Dermot Finucane was involved in numerous shootings from 1979 onwards, escaping from Maze Prison in 1983, two years after his arrest, and incarcerated in the Republic of Ireland from 1987 to 1991 , where he successfully opposed extradition to Northern Ireland. Seamus Finucane was interned in 1972 at the age of 15 and arrested along with Bobby Sands in 1976 . In prison he took part in the Blanket protest ; after his release in 1986 he was the fiancé of Mairéad Farrell . According to his wife, Pat Finucane tried to convince his brothers to graduate from school and not join the IRA. He respected her decision, but thought it was foolish.

From the mid-1970s Finucane practiced as a lawyer in Belfast; In 1979 he merged with Peter Madden to form Madden and Finucane . The firm has handled both civil and criminal cases , specializing in the defense of individuals charged under Northern Ireland's anti-terrorism legislation. Given Finucane's family background, numerous Republicans suspected of paramilitary activities became clients of the firm; at the same time Finucane defended loyalists.

In 1981 Finucane was interviewed several times on television as a lawyer by Bobby Sands during his hunger strikes . Madden and Finucane has had particular success in civil suits that seek aggregate damages of many £ 100,000 for ill-treatment in police custody and deprivation of liberty through false arrest. In the early 1980s, Finucane was a defense attorney in the so-called Supergrass trials , which resulted in numerous indictments based on statements from key witnesses . Finucane criticized that the proceedings are based purely on statements and that there is no material evidence. He called the up to four years long pre-trial detention during the trials "internment through pre-trial detention". In 1988 the IRA -affiliated Sinn Féin party hired him to review the legality of the ban on television and radio interviews with Sinn Fein members. That same year, Finucane served as defense attorney for IRA member Pat McGeown , whose murder charges were dropped. Also in 1988 he was responsible for the first successful Habeas Corpus petition, in which incarceration under anti-terrorism legislation for Northern Ireland for police abuse was recognized as illegal. In early 1989, Finucane fought for better conditions for prisoners in solitary confinement and launched two proceedings against the British government before the European Commission for Human Rights in Strasbourg.

On January 17, 1989, Douglas Hogg , Parliamentary Undersecretary in the Home Office, declared in the House of Commons that there were lawyers in Northern Ireland who were unduly sympathetic to the IRA cause. In Parliament, Hogg's statements were met with protests from Seamus Mallon ( SDLP ), who, according to Hogg's statement, saw human lives in great danger. At the time, of the several hundred Belfast lawyers, few had specialized in defending clients charged under the counterterrorism laws. According to Finucane's wife, the couple were shocked by Hogg's statements and were considering additional security measures.

On February 12, 1989, Finucane was shot dead in front of his wife and children at his home in north Belfast. The two masked perpetrators had previously smashed the front door. According to the woman, the perpetrators were very cold-blooded and methodical; she got the impression it wasn't the first murder they'd committed. The Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a cover name used by the Ulster Defense Association (UDA), which was still legal in 1989, claimed responsibility for the attack . The UFF called the attack part of their "inevitable retaliation" for IRA attacks, claiming that Finucane was an IRA officer. Finucane's IRA membership was denied by the head of the homicide investigation and vigorously denied by Finucane's partner Madden. Madden said Finucane expressed his disapproval of the situation in Northern Ireland by challenging her in the courtroom. He was concerned that the criminal justice system would be used to combat a violent political uprising in order to classify it as a criminal conspiracy.

Homicide investigation

Pat Finucane on a poster in Belfast.

The murder of Finucane is considered one of the most controversial deaths in the Northern Ireland conflict. Irish Republicans see Finucane's death as evidence of far-reaching cooperation between the British security forces and loyalist paramilitaries. The Sinn Féin politician Alex Maskey said in 2009 that the murder of the lawyer illustrates the depth and scope of the cooperation between the British army, unionistdeath squads ” and the British “ establishment ”. The Finucanes family is campaigning for an independent public inquiry into the circumstances of the murder.

Immediately after the murder, there was suspicion that members of the British security forces had consulted with the perpetrators. Finucane's clients said officers from the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Northern Ireland police made death threats against their lawyer during interrogation. John Stalker , who investigated the RUC's killings of IRA members in the 1980s, reported attempts by the RUC to intimidate him after speaking to Finucane and said he had never seen police officers hatred of a lawyer in such a way.

In January 1992 Brian Nelson was sentenced to ten years in prison. According to the lawsuit, Nelson was a senior member of the UDA responsible for intelligence gathering and also served as an informant for the Military Intelligence Force Research Unit (FRU). Press reports from the summer of 1992 brought Nelson into connection with Finucane's murder: Nelson is said to have compiled information about Finucane with the knowledge of his FRU senior officers and to have given the UDA members responsible for the attack a photograph of the lawyer.

In 1999 William Stobie was charged with participating in the Finucane assassination. Stobie was responsible for arms management within the UDA and was also an informant for the RUC's Special Branch , the intelligence service of the Northern Irish police. Stobie was first arrested in September 1990; in January 1991 it was initially decided not to bring charges against him. In his defense, Stobie stated that he had given the Special Branch enough information to prevent the attack; Nor was he aware that Finucane was the target of the planned attack. Stobie was acquitted in November 2001 for lack of evidence after the prosecution ruled that an important witness was not credible because of his health problems. Stobie was shot dead in December 2001; the attack was attributed to the UDA.

According to an October 2000 report in the Sunday Times , UDA member Ken Barrett confessed to RUC criminal investigators in October 1991 that he was one of Finucane's two killers. The Special Branch of the RUC decided not to bring charges, but to use Barrett as an informant. In 2002, Barrett admitted to being involved in Finucane's murder in a covert interview with the BBC . At the same time, he stated that an official from the Special Branch had tried to convince him that Finucane was a "legitimate target"; the same official supported the attackers on the night of the attack. Barrett was arrested in May 2003, confessed to Finucane's murder and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. In May 2006, Barrett was released early from custody under the Good Friday Agreement .

Nelson and Stobie's arrests were initiated by the Stevens Inquiries , a British government commissioned by John Stevens , who was head of the London Metropolitan Police Service from 2000 to 2005 . Investigations since May 1999 also included Finucane's murder. According to the April 2003 final report, Stevens found sufficient evidence that Finucane's murder was preventable and that early arrests were possible through the RUC investigation. According to Stevens, Douglas Hogg's statements in the House of Commons a few weeks before Finucane's death were based in part on information from the RUC that was not justified; Hogg was "compromised". Stevens concluded that there were collusion in the Finucane assassination.

During the Northern Irish peace process, the British and Irish governments announced in June 2001 that they would jointly appoint a judge from a third country to review the Finucane case and five other cases. Was appointed Peter Cory , formerly judge of the Supreme Court of Canada . Cory concluded in April 2004 that the British Army, the RUC and the UK domestic intelligence service MI5 were aware of several plans to assassinate Finucane but did not intervene and did not warn the attorney. On the part of the special branch of the RUC, there was a "perhaps unconscious" bias due to which possible victims of attacks were treated differently by the IRA and the UDA. Cory recommended a public inquiry. The British government initially wanted to wait for the criminal proceedings against Barrett to be completed and then announced that it would conduct a public inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 . This was refused by Finucane's family, as the law allowed the government to interfere with the independence of the investigation.

In October 2011 , British Prime Minister David Cameron apologized to the Finucanes family and said that Stevens and Cory's investigations had revealed that government agencies were implicated in the murder. At the same time, Cameron announced that there would be no public investigation into the murder, but that Crown Attorney Sir Desmond de Silva would conduct a review. Shocked by the government's change of heart, the Finucanes family launched a judicial review of Cameron's decision.

De Silva's report, the so-called "Finucane Report" as the conclusion of the Pat Finucane Review , was published in December 2012. He comes to the conclusion that British secret services were involved in the preparation and execution of the murder to a significant extent. Although a state-controlled and supported agreement with the aim of the murder is judged to be undetectable, the report nevertheless comes to the conclusion that the murder could have been prevented. The Northern Ireland Police Chief constable Matt Baggott therefore apologized unconditionally to the Finucane family for the events on behalf of the Northern Irish Police. Prime Minister David Cameron was shocked by the results of the investigation. The Finucane family complained that the investigation did exactly what it intended, to excuse what went on and to deny personal and direct responsibility.

A Belfast Supreme Court judge ruled on June 26, 2015 that David Cameron's decision not to conduct an independent public investigation into the murder was justified. The court pointed out that a number of witnesses were dead and that the main witness was unable to testify due to his state of health. The decision against the investigation was described as impartial. The Finucane family, on the other hand, described the decision as politically motivated and invoked a promise to investigate the murder. She saw the decision as a setback, but was still determined to fight to solve the murder, she said.

literature

  • Fiona Doherty: Beyond collusion, The UK security forces and the murder of Patrick Finucane. 2nd Edition. Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, New York 2003, ISBN 0-934143-97-8 ( online , PDF, 685 kB).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. For the biography see Kevin Toolis: Rebel hearts. Journeys within the IRA's soul. St. Martin's Press, New York 1996, ISBN 0-312-14478-4 , pp. 84-90; Doherty, Beyond collusion (PDF, 685 kB), p. 4ff.
  2. Toolis, Rebel hearts , pp 94ff.
  3. ^ Based on interviews with the family: Toolis, Rebel hearts , pp. 105–183.
  4. Toolis, Rebel hearts , S. 105th
  5. Toolis, Rebel hearts , S. 88f. Doherty, Beyond collusion (PDF, 685 kB), pp. 1, 4.
  6. On legal work, see Toolis, Rebel hearts , pp. 88–93, Doherty, Beyond collusion (PDF, 685 kB), pp. 5f.
  7. Hansard : House of Commons, Standing Committee B., January 17, 1989, column 508. Quoted in Doherty, Beyond collusion (PDF, 685 kB), p. 9.
  8. Hansard: House of Commons, Standing Committee B., January 17, 1989, column 511. Quoted in Doherty, Beyond collusion (PDF, 685 kB), p. 10.
  9. ^ David McKittrick: Lost lives. The stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the Northern Ireland troubles. Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh 1999, ISBN 1-84018-227-X , p. 1160.
  10. Quoted in Toolis, Rebel hearts , p. 86.
  11. On the murder, see Toolis, Rebel hearts , pp. 84–87, Doherty, Beyond collusion (PDF, 685 kB), pp. 13ff.
  12. a b Mark Devenport: Pat Finucane's murder which one of NI's most controversial killings. BBC News , October 11, 2011 (accessed January 17, 2012).
  13. Quoted from Sinn Féin West Belfast: Pat Finucane 20th Anniversary Events Take place.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. February 15, 2009 (Retrieved January 17, 2011).@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.westbelfastsinnfein.com  
  14. Finucane Family Statements at www.patfinucaneinquiry.com (accessed January 18, 2012).
  15. Doherty, Beyond collusion (PDF, 685 kB), p. 8.
  16. ^ John Stalker: The Stalker affair. Viking, New York 1988, ISBN 0-670-82262-0 , p. 49. Quoted in: Doherty, Beyond collusion (PDF, 685 kB), p. 7.
  17. ^ Collusion - Chronology of Events in the Stevens Inquiries. January 22, 1992 from CAIN - Conflict archive on the Internet (accessed January 18, 2012).
  18. Doherty, Beyond collusion (PDF, 685 kB), p. 29ff.
  19. ^ Amnesty International : United Kingdom: Political Killings in Northern Ireland . April 1994, p. 21f (PDF, 133 kB, accessed on January 18, 2012).
  20. Doherty, Beyond collusion (PDF, 685 kB), pp. 40–50, 63–69.
  21. Doherty, Beyond collusion (PDF, 685 kB), pp. 73-89. See also Collusion - Transcript of BBC Panorama program, June 19, 2002 at CAIN - Conflict archive on the Internet (accessed January 18, 2012).
  22. Finucane killer gets 22 years. BBC News, September 16, 2004 (accessed January 18, 2012).
  23. Finucane killer freed from jail. BBC News, May 23, 2006 (accessed January 18, 2012).
  24. Army 'colluded' with loyalist killers. BBC News, April 17, 2003. See also John Stevens: Stevens Inquiry. Overview and Recommendations. ( Memento of the original from December 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF, 242 kB, accessed on January 19, 2012). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / patfinucanereview.org
  25. David McKittrick: MI5 'knew of plot to kill Finucane' The Independent , April 2, 2004. See also Cory Collusion Inquiry Report ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF 589 kB, accessed on January 19, 2012). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / patfinucanereview.org
  26. Timeline of Pat Finucane murder probe. BBC News, October 11, 2011 (accessed January 19, 2012).
  27. Pat Finucane's family shocked by government's “change of mind”. BBC News, October 12, 2011 (accessed January 19, 2012).
  28. ^ Pat Finucane's family to challenge David Cameron decision. BBC News, December 7, 2011 (accessed January 19, 2012).
  29. Pat Finucane murder: 'Shocking state collusion', says PM. BBC News December 12, 2012 (accessed December 13, 2012)
  30. Pat Finucane murder: PM's decision not to hold independent inquiry upheld in: The Guardian, June 26, 2015, accessed June 26, 2015