The UK government has not ruled out an inquiry into killings by the Provisional IRA’s internal security unit (ISU), the solicitor representing the family of one of the victims has said.
Speaking following a court hearing on Wednesday, Kevin Winters said “the UK government has not ruled out the possibility of an inquiry. Equally, they haven’t ruled it in either.”
He said no decision had been made and the argument made by the UK government was one of timing, that “it needs to be revisited at a later stage, after the final Kenova report is produced”.
“We’re saying that that report is neither here nor there, and that the time is now,” Mr Winters said.
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Last year the interim report on the findings of Operation Kenova, which investigated the activities of Stakeknife, the British army’s top IRA spy during the Troubles, found the British security forces allowed murders to be carried out and go unpunished to protect its agents.
It concluded more lives were lost than saved due to the actions of Stakeknife, widely identified as west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, the head of the Provisional IRA’s internal security unit known as the “nutting squad”.
The family of Caroline Moreland, a 34-year-old mother of three shot dead by the IRA in 1994 on suspicion of being an informer, has taken a legal challenge against the Northern Secretary in relation to the need for a public inquiry into her murder.
Ms Moreland’s killing was investigated as part of Operation Kenova, but investigators confirmed to her family that Stakeknife was not involved in her murder, Mr Winters said.
The Moreland family argues that the circumstances surrounding her killing have not been fully investigated, and a public inquiry is needed to address wider, systemic failings by the British state to investigate all killings carried out by the unit over a 15-year period from 1979-1994.
“The work of Operation Kenova revealed that state penetration of the ISU extended way beyond the alleged agent Stakeknife, Freddie Scappaticci,” Mr Winters said.
“We say the Article 2 [of the European Convention on Human Rights] obligation extends beyond just the killing of Caroline Moreland, and there’s an obligation to engage on the issue thematically.
“In other words, you can’t look at that case in isolation, there’s an obligation to consider all the other killings.”
During the hearing in Belfast high court on Wednesday, counsel for the Moreland family argued the UK government had unlawfully failed to order a public inquiry to establish the full extent to which the ISU was penetrated by British state agents.
Hugh Southey KC, representing Ms Moreland’s son Marc, claimed the refusal to set up a statutory inquiry at this stage breached Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
He contended that the interim Operation Kenova report highlighted a failure to regulate agents and raised questions about the potential failure to take action to “dismantle” the ISU.
“The issues are potentially wider than just Stakeknife,” Mr Southey said.
“There is an ongoing breach of Article 2 which arises because of the failure to hold a thematic investigation with the family’s involvement.”
Counsel for the Northern Secretary responded that the challenge was unsustainable because no decision had yet been taken on whether or not to hold an inquiry, and therefore the legal challenge was premature.
Judgment was reserved on the application for leave to seek a judicial review.
Mr Winters said he was “hopeful that whatever the outcome of the application, either way we will get clarity on the State’s attitude to an inquiry”.
