Following the announcement today by the NI Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers MP, that the de Silva Review would be published during the week beginning 10th December 2012, the Finucane family reiterated their call for a full public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the murder of Pat Finucane.
Speaking after the announcement by the Secretary of State, Geraldine Finucane said:
“My family and I remain committed to achieving our goal of an independent public inquiry into all of the circumstances surrounding Pat’s murder. Our case for an inquiry has become even stronger following the admission by the British Government that there was state collusion in my husband’s killing. This makes their refusal to honour the commitment to hold an inquiry even more disgraceful.
“The Secretary of State makes much of her Government’s anxiousness to publish the de Silva report in full, as if this were some sort of guarantee of openness and transparency. In reality, it is nothing of the sort. Vital information has already been removed from the report by the de Silva Review Team prior to checking by security officials, MOD personnel and the PSNI. By the time the report is made public it will have been sanitised completely, to ensure that the least possible amount of discomfort is caused to the Government and the British State.
“I am not surprised that the Secretary of State has confirmed that the de Silva Review contains nothing that would be considered too sensitive to publish. It is clear from what the Secretary of State has said today and previously that the Government has deployed every conceivable process, including the de Silva review itself, to ensure that the truth behind Pat’s murder never sees the light of day.”