British 'collusion' in Irish killing

British army and police officers aided Northern Ireland's major outlawed Protestant group in the 1989 assassination of a top Catholic lawyer.

That is the verdict of a four-year probe into one of the province's most controversial killings.

The leaked conclusions of Sir John Stevens, commander of London's Metropolitan Police, fuelled immediate Catholic demands for Britain to authorise an internationally led, public investigation into the slaying of Patrick Finucane.

The 38-year-old lawyer, whose speciality was representing high-profile Irish Republican Army members, was shot to death in front of his wife and children as they sat down to dinner in their north Belfast home.

Although an Ulster Defence Association gunman carried out the killing, Catholics have long accused intelligence chiefs of encouraging the hit.

Stevens, who was first assigned in 1989 to probe links between Protestant outlaws and British security personnel in Northern Ireland, was expected to withhold publication of the bulk of his approximately 3,000-page report and discuss only his overall conclusions.

A British legal official said publishing it in full could undermine potential criminal charges against up to 20 current and former members of the Northern Ireland police and British Army named in Stevens' report.

But Catholics and human rights organisations accused authorities of a cover up.

"This explanation beggars belief," said a joint statement from five human rights organisations led by Amnesty International.

The rights groups suggested those suppressing the full report wanted "to shield some of its contents from public scrutiny." They called for Britain to authorise an independent inquiry "with full powers to subpoena witnesses and compel the disclosure of documents."

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