Pat Finucane

On Monday, the government outlined its response to the UK Supreme Court’s ruling in February 2019 that the state has failed to deliver an Article 2 compliant investigation into the death of Mr Finucane, who was shot and killed by loyalist paramilitaries in collusion with UK security forces.

It said it would not establish a public inquiry and highlighted an ongoing “review process” within the PSNI and investigations by the Police Ombudsman.

However, human rights campaigners and political parties have said subsequent statements from the PSNI and the Police Ombudsman challenge this explanation.

PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne said: “It is our view that there are currently no new lines of inquiry. We now need to decide if a further review is merited given all the previous investigations into this case. Once we have determined that, we will inform the Finucane family.

“If we determine that a review should take place, we will then have to decide if we are best placed to carry out that review. As it stands it is unlikely that we would enjoy a perception of independence in this case, given the accepted position of State involvement in this matter. Therefore, it is highly likely that any review would need to be conducted independently.

“A review itself is not an investigation. Any decision to investigate would only be made following the review process. Again, it is likely that any new investigation would need to be independently led.

“We would also need to be satisfied that given the extensive work of Lord Stevens, Judge Cory and Sir Desmond de Silva, that a further investigation has a reasonable prospect of furthering this matter either by bringing more persons to justice or answering the unanswered questions of the Finucane family and their ongoing search for justice.”

In a statement, the Police Ombudsman’s Office said: “A total of 13 separate matters arising from the de Silva review were formally referred to the Police Ombudsman’s Office by the PSNI in February 2016. However, at this stage events connected to the murder of Pat Finucane are not central to any of our ongoing investigations.”

The Belfast-based Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), which has campaigned for a public inquiry into Mr Finucane’s murder, tweeted that Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis’s “smokescreen [is] unravelling already”.

Separately, the leaders of Sinn Féin, the SDLP, the Alliance Party and the Green Party have written to Mr Lewis to set out their view that the PSNI and Police Ombudsman statements “raise serious questions about your decision, your approach and why you have rejected a public inquiry”.

The letter, signed by Michelle O’Neill, Colum Eastwood, Stephen Farry and Claire Bailey, calls on the government to “reconsider your decision and hold a Public Inquiry into the 1989 killing of Pat Finucane”.