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Family of murdered GAA official to continue legal battle for public inquiry
The family of murdered
GAA
official Seán Brown have said they will take their fight for a public inquiry to the supreme court after it was again ruled out by the
UK
government.
In a letter to Mr Brown's 87-year-old widow, Bridie, seen by The Irish Times, Northern Secretary,
Hilary Benn
said 'an inquiry under the Inquiries Act is not the best way to proceed'.
A mandatory order given
by the court of appeal
in Belfast earlier this year found the UK government breached its human rights obligation to investigate the full extent of state collusion in the case and its refusal to order a public inquiry into Mr Brown's murder was unlawful and 'cannot stand'.
Mr Benn has sought leave to challenge the court of appeal judgment in the supreme court, and a decision is pending.
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Seán Brown family say decision to challenge inquiry ruling 'shameful'
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In a statement, the Brown family said 'this formal decision to appeal our case to the supreme court in London is a shameless defiance of the rule of law and represents utter contempt for the highest court in this jurisdiction.
'Our mother directly pleaded with Hilary Benn not to trail her to London, we asked him to respect the court and to do what the courts had directed him to do.
'We will regroup and regalvanise and will contest our family's entitlement to a public inquiry, as directed by five judges.'
Mr Brown, a father of six, was locking the gates at Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAA club in Co Derry when he was abducted and murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in 1997. No one has ever been convicted of the 61-year-old's killing.
Last year it emerged that up to 25 people, some of whom were state agents, were linked through intelligence to the murder.
In his letter to Mrs Brown, the Northern Secretary acknowledged he 'cannot, of course, now act on any decision that is inconsistent with the mandatory order of the court of appeal' but said he had 'considered what my preferred course of action would be, in the absence of a mandatory order'.
He said he had 'weighed again a number of factors', including the views of the Brown family and that of many court judgments, 'important public interest factors' and issues of time and cost.
'I am committed to a process that is fair, transparent and – crucially – allows the greatest possible disclosure of information, whilst ensuring that proportionate safeguards remain in place to protect the security of the State,' he wrote.
Mr Benn said reforms he intended to bring forward meant the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) – the investigative body set up under the UK government's controversial Legacy Act – would be able to 'complete the full and independent investigation that you seek, in a form comparable to the 2005 Inquiries Act'.
This was rejected by the Brown family, which said recent news reports 'that the ICRIR is an organisation stacked with former RUC and soldiers further confirms our sincere belief that the ICRIR is infrastructurally prohibited from being able to get to the truth of what happened to our father.
'Despite this, the secretary of state has yet again proposed that we engage with this discredited body.'
The solicitor for the Brown family, Niall Murphy, said that 'in once again refusing to convene a public inquiry the secretary of state has refused to take account of the widespread public revulsion at the failure to provide the answers the Brown family has been asking for more than 28 years.
'Equally significantly, the secretary of state continues to defy the judicial decisions of the coroner, the judicial review court and the court of appeal, the highest court in this jurisdiction.
'Despite all its public pronouncements, this Labour government by its actions continues to demonstrate that it does not recognise or believe in the rule of law, their treatment of the Brown family has been contemptible.
'By contrast, the Brown family are now ready and determined to vindicate their rights in the supreme court, the highest court of law in the UK,' he said.
Following a meeting with the Brown family last month, the Tánaiste,
Simon Harris
, praised their 'enormous strength in pursuing this case' and said he would 'continue to use my influence and that of the Irish Government to bring about a resolution that is acceptable to the Brown family. They have waited too long,' he said.
