The Cory report into allegations of security force collusion in loyalist paramilitary murders will be published before the end of this month, the High Court in Belfast heard yesterday.
The families of murder victims Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson and loyalist paramilitary Billy Wright have taken the government to the courts to establish why it has failed to publish the reports, in which Canadian former Supreme Court judge Peter Cory has told them he recommends public inquiries into the deaths be set up.
Last week a date of March 22nd was set for a judicial review hearing of the case. But in court yesterday Mr Dermot Morgan QC, for the Crown, asked for an adjournment of this date because the government intends to publish the reports by the end of March.
Mr Justice Gillen agreed that "justice would be better served" if he had an opportunity to read the reports before the hearing. He took the unusual step of setting the hearing date for April 2nd, during the Easter legal vacation.
"A hearing during the legal vacation is only usually when there is an emergency but I think this case is so pressing that I intend to take the unusual step now to fix a date during the vacation so it can be heard at the earliest possible moment," he said.
Mr Seamus Treacey QC, for the Finucane and Wright families, said they would have preferred the case to continue as planned on March 22nd. While the government had said they were trying to prevent a legal challenge to publication of the Cory reports by people named in them, those people were to be given the reports at the same time as the families, he said.
"It is difficult to understand how the court is being told the government is being very careful to minimise the chances of a challenge, but also providing the report to those individuals who might challenge it. It is a rather curious contradiction," Mr Treacey said.