The widow of murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane has said she will not co-operate with the inquiry into his killing led by the Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens.
Mr Stevens was invited by the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, to investigate the circumstances of the 1989 UDA murder of Mr Finucane. Sir Ronnie said he would order an independent inquiry if evidence was found of RUC collusion.
Mrs Geraldine Finucane said she distrusted the chief constable's motives in seeking the Stevens investigation, and believed it was an attempt to stall a full independent inquiry.
"More than 10 years has elapsed since Pat's murder. During that time the RUC had ample time to conduct a thorough investigation had the will to do so existed," said Mrs Finucane, who added that neither she nor her family would co-operate with the Stevens inquiry.
Mrs Finucane said Mr Stevens twice in the early 1990s carried out inquiries into allegations of British army and RUC security files being leaked to loyalist paramilitaries and found there was no evidence of "institutionalised" collusion. "On none of these occasions did Mr Stevens contact me or other members of the Finucane family or the firm of Madden and Finucane Solicitors or former clients of Pat who reported very specific death threats which had been made prior to his murder."
She also expressed disappointment that the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, postponed a meeting to discuss a report submitted by the Finucane family alleging security force collusion in the solicitor's killing.
A spokesman for Dr Mowlam said she hoped to re-schedule the meeting, which she was forced to postpone because she was in Dublin to sign a treaty on recovering IRA victims' bodies.
