A dispute has arisen over the suitability of the senior Scotland Yard police officer Mr John Stevens to head the current inquiry into the 1989 murder of the Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane.
The Belfast-based human rights group the Committee on the Administration of Justice has highlighted what it claims are contradictions between different accounts of the previous involvement by Mr Stevens in investigating the Finucane murder.
However, a Scotland Yard spokesman has rejected the suggestion that there is any contradiction between Mr Stevens's role now and in the past. The spokesman said previous involvement by Mr Stevens with the Finucane case was in the context of a wider investigation of alleged collusion between the security forces and terrorists.
The CAJ has pointed out that, in a letter to the dead man's son, John, dated January 29th, 1998, the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, said that in addition to the initial RUC investigation, "the circumstances surrounding your father's murder were fully investigated again by Mr John Stevens following allegations of Brian Nelson's involvement".
But the Scotland Yard spokesmen said the Stevens inquiry referred to by the Prime Minister was into the "circumstances surrounding" the murder, namely, the allegations of collusion involving the double agent Brian Nelson, rather than a murder investigation as such.
The CAJ also pointed out that in a 1995 letter to Ms Jane Winter of the British-Irish Human Rights Watch, Mr Stevens wrote: "With regard to the murder of Patrick Finucane, I can confirm that this matter was fully investigated during the initial and subsequent inquiry and the results included in both reports." (The "initial and subsequent inquiry" refers to the two investigations into collusion claims headed by Mr Stevens in 1989 and 1993.)
Again, however, the Scotland Yard spokesman said the letter to Ms Winter made clear that the examination of the Finucane case by Mr Stevens was in the context of an investigation of collusion issues.
The CAJ also cites a Commons reply by the Minister for the Armed Forces, Mr Doug Henderson, to the Labour MP Mr Kevin McNamara on April 16th last, which stated: "The murder of Patrick Finucane was investigated both by the RUC and subsequently by the investigation team led by John Stevens . . . "
The Scotland Yard spokesman said: "The picture is quite simple really. You need to go back and look at the terms of reference for these previous investigations. What you will see is his role was to look at allegations of collusion, especially in relation to Brian Nelson, and while that was linked to the murder of Patrick Finucane he did not at that time investigate the murder and that is what he is doing now with a full team."
Contrasting the nature of the current investigation with previous Stevens inquiries, the police spokesman said: "The investigation now is very firmly looking at the murder of Patrick Finucane and that is why we have got an independent team of investigators in Northern Ireland working on this investigation at this time."
Rejecting this explanation, a spokesman for the CAJ said: "This in no way clarifies the contradiction between what human rights organisations and the Finucane family were told by Mr Stevens, the British government and the Ministry of Defence, and what Mr Stevens is saying now. Before this investigation can command public confidence it remains incumbent upon Mr Stevens to clarify once and for all if he did indeed investigate the murder of Patrick Finucane in the past."
A motion on the order paper of the House of Commons from Mr McNamara says that Mr Stevens wrote to Madden and Finucane solicitors in Belfast on April 23rd last stating that "at no time was I given the authority by either the Chief Constable of the RUC or the Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate the murder of Patrick Finucane".
The motion calls on the British government to explain what Mr McNamara terms the "contradiction" between the different accounts of Mr Stevens's role in the Finucane case and asks the Government to consider "whether Mr Stevens is a proper person to inspire confidence in leading an investigation into the death of Patrick Finucane".
On April 6th last, the British government told the UN Commission on Human Rights that "the Patrick Finucane case was considered not only by the criminal investigation into the murder but also in great detail by John Stevens as part of his wider inquiry into allegations of collusion between the security forces and terrorists".
The family of the murdered man has refused to co-operate with the Stevens inquiry into his death, claiming that it is an attempt to offset demands for an independent public inquiry.