Sinn Fein has deplored an assertion by the former RUC chief constable, Sir John Hermon, that murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane was "associated with the IRA" and that he used his position to further republican aims.
A similar claim was made recently by the Ulster Unionist Party security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis. He said Mr Finucane, who was murdered by the UDA 10 years ago, was "inextricably linked to the IRA".
The claims arise as the Government is pressing London to hold an independent international inquiry into Mr Finucane's killing. The Northern Secretary, Dr Mowlam, has not ruled this out.
Sir John Hermon, chief constable at the time of the 1989 killing, said he condemned the murder. But he added that the portrayal of Mr Finucane as someone who did nothing more than work for clients on both sides of the community was "not sustainable".
Yesterday's Daily Telegraph reported him as saying: "Pat Finucane was associated with the IRA and he used his position as a lawyer to act as a contact between suspects in custody and republicans on the outside."
The UDA intelligence officer and British army agent Brian Nelson said in his prison diaries that he warned his army handlers of the UDA plan to murder Mr Finucane. The Pat Finucane Centre in Derry claimed there was evidence of the RUC being warned in advance of the murder.
Sir John, however, said there was no evidence of any RUC collusion. It was vital that the republican campaign to undermine the force did not succeed, he added.
He said it was iniquitous that there should be special inquiries into the killings of Mr Finucane and of Lurgan solicitor Mrs Rosemary Nelson without similar inquiries into IRA murders of lawyers and judges.
A month before Mr Finucane was killed a British government junior minister, Mr Douglas Hogg, said: "There are in Northern Ireland a number of solicitors unduly sympathetic to the cause of the IRA." This caused controversy at the time but, according to the retired chief constable, "this statement was based on fact".
This month Mr Maginnis said Mr Finucane was "inextricably linked" to the IRA. These comments were described as "irresponsible and ill-founded" by Ms Liz O'Donnell, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. But Mr Maginnis refused to withdraw his claim.
A Sinn Fein Assembly member, Ms Bairbre de Brun, yesterday condemned Sir John's remarks. "They are a pathetic attempt by John Hermon to deflect attention away from the allegations that his force colluded with loyalist death squads in the murder," she said.
She believed the comments were designed to make it more difficult to uncover the full details of Mr Finucane's murder. "But an increasing tide of international opinion is demanding answers and demanding the truth," she added.
A spokesman for the Pat Finucane Centre said that neither the centre nor the Finucane family would be responding at this stage to Sir John's comments.
