THE 700-PAGE report into the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) murder of loyalist paramilitary leader Billy Wright is to be published tomorrow week.
The report into how the INLA murdered the Loyalist Volunteer Force leader inside the Maze prison at Christmas time in 1997 will be released after Northern Secretary Owen Paterson reads a statement about its findings in the House of Commons.
The Wright family has alleged British state collusion in his killing. The inquiry, which has cost about £30 million (€36 million), was announced in 2004, with substantive oral hearings beginning in January 2008 and concluding in July 2009. It was established after a report by retired Canadian judge, Justice Peter Cory.
Its terms of reference were “to inquire into the death of Billy Wright with a view to determining whether any wrongful act or omission by or within the prison authorities or other state agencies facilitated his death, or whether attempts were made to do so; whether any such act or omission was intentional or negligent; and to make recommendations.”
Key questions were why Wright, viewed as a loyalist maverick and opponent of the peace process, and other LVF members were housed in the same H-Block as the INLA; how the INLA was able to smuggle in guns to kill him; why an important CCTV camera was not working; why a prison officer on watchtower duty was stood down; and how the three-men INLA killer team was able to cut through a wire fence to get to the area where Wright was sitting in a prison van and shoot him dead.