Northern Irish court backs PM Cameron over 1989 murder inquiry
BELFAST (Reuters) - A Northern Ireland court on Friday backed Prime Minister David Cameron's refusal to hold a public inquiry into the 1989 murder of a human rights lawyer, whose death remains a lightning rod for anger over state collusion with pro-British paramilitaries.
Pat Finucane, who represented leading Irish republicans in court, was shot dead in front of his family at his north Belfast by loyalists believed to have been acting in collusion with British security forces.
On Friday, a judicial review rejected an appeal by Finucane's family for a public inquiry into the shooting, saying Cameron's 2011 decision not to hold one was lawful. Cameron instead commissioned an independent investigation, whose report was published in 2012.
The 2012 report severely criticised members of the British intelligence services and army and the Northern Irish police for colluding in the killing and covering it up.
Protestant-dominated security forces were dogged by Catholic allegations of collusion with pro-British paramilitaries during the IRA's 30-year armed struggle to end British rule over the province and unite with largely Catholic Ireland. A series of separate reports have borne out those accusations.
(Reporting by Maurice Neill in Belfast, writing by William James; editing by Stephen Addison)
