A High Court judge yesterday granted the family of murdered Belfast solicitor Mr Pat Finucane the right to launch a new legal action challenging the British government's refusal to set up a public inquiry into his murder.
Last week Mr Justice Gillen adjourned another judicial review taken by the family against the government's failure to publish retired Canadian judge Peter Cory's report into security force collusion in murders by loyalists.
He ordered the government to produce a date for publication by the next court hearing on March 22th. Judge Cory has told the families concerned that he has recommended public inquiries.
Yesterday Mr Seamus Tracey QC, for the Finucane family, argued that the right to a public inquiry was a separate issue from the failure to publish the Cory report, and that both cases centred around the government's slowness to act.
He said that despite being given Judge Cory's report in October 2003, the government had done nothing to start establishing a public inquiry, and he cited the timescale of the Saville inquiry into Bloody Sunday, in which the opening statement was not heard until two years after it was first set up.
Mr Justice Gillen granted leave for a judicial review into the public inquiry issue and said he would hear the case on April 22nd.