-Caveat Lector-
"In its 1990 report - largely kept secret - a major investigation into
the extent of police and army support for pro-British Protestant paramilitary
groups on northern Ireland, identified at least 10 army members who leaked
police documents in hopes of encouraging assassinations.
"It also disclosed that the British army's anti-terrorist intelligence
unit had infiltrated the top ranks of Protestant "terrorist" groups,
allegedly to influence whom it killed."
Briton Charged in Belfast Murder
By SHAWN POGATCHNIK
.c The Associated Press
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) - Ten years ago, Patrick Finucane was sitting
down to dinner with his family when a masked gunman shot the prominent
Catholic attorney 14 times at close range.
Now, a former British soldier is charged with murder, reinforcing some
critics' suspicions that the British army and the predominantly Protestant
police force colluded in the killing.
The accused man, William Stobie, a Protestant and a former member of a local
army regiment, was arraigned Thursday. At the time of the killing, Stobie was
a paid informer for the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northern Ireland's police
force.
The 48-year-old man's arrest Wednesday in one of Northern Ireland's most
politically explosive killings renewed allegations that the police and
soldiers either guided or turned a blind eye to whoever killed the lawyer on
Feb. 12, 1989.
Finucane, 39, was admired in militant Catholic quarters - and just as reviled
in militant Protestant ones - because of his highly successful defense of
Irish Republican Army suspects and outspoken criticism of the police. Three
of his brothers were IRA members.
A pro-British Protestant paramilitary group, the Ulster Defense Association,
claimed responsibility for the killing, but Finucane's supporters say the
police targeted the lawyer because of his work and privately encouraged his
killers.
The arrest of Stobie, who was ordered held without bail until July 14,
followed an international campaign to re-open the Finucane case.
``He totally denies and repudiates the charge of murder,'' Stobie's lawyer,
Joe Rice, said in court Thursday. The attorney said his client had telephoned
his police superiors to pass on a vague warning that Finucane's killers were
about to strike. That tip-off, Rice alleged, ``clearly was not acted upon.''
The allegations against the police had gained momentum in March when a second
high-profile Catholic attorney, Rosemary Nelson, was slain in suspicious
circumstances.
A U.N. human rights fact-finder and members of the U.S. Congress have
demanded independent investigations into both killings.
Northern Ireland's police commander, Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan,
appointed an outsider to oversee a fresh Finucane investigation, and his
choice was telling: John Stevens, deputy commissioner of London's
Metropolitan Police.
Stevens had led the only major investigation into the extent of police and
army support for Northern Ireland's pro-British Protestant paramilitary
groups, particularly the Ulster Defense Association.
Stevens' 1990 report - largely kept secret - identified 10 army members who
were subsequently convicted of leaking police documents on IRA suspects to
UDA killers in hopes of encouraging assassinations.
It also disclosed that the British army's anti-terrorist intelligence unit
had infiltrated the top ranks of the Belfast UDA with a double agent, Brian
Nelson - either to prevent planned UDA hits, as the army insists, or to
influence whom the UDA killed, as others allege.
Nelson, later convicted and imprisoned for conspiring to murder several
people, has denied any role in targeting Finucane.
Finucane's widow, Geraldine, who was wounded during the gun attack, is suing
both the army and Nelson for financial compensation and has refused to
cooperate with Stevens' investigation.
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