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Stevens stirs again (1)

01 January 1991

Stevens stirs again
artdoc July=1993

The Sunday Business Post claimed in May that John Stevens, the
Deputy Chief Constable of Cambridge, is once again taking up the
question of collusion between loyalist paramilitary groups and
the security forces. Brian Nelson, who is serving a ten year
sentence as a result of the original Stevens' inquiry and who,
as the Belfast UDA's intelligence officer, supplied information
to MI5 over a ten year period, was recently re-interviewed by
Stevens. Nelson has written a 90,000 word `diary' of his
activities which was acquired by the Panorama programme. Panorama
linked British intelligence to the killing of Belfast solicitor,
Pat Finucane and in February four America lawyers, including the
Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, issued a
report claiming there was good evidence linking the British army
to the solicitor's death. Finucane was one of the lawyers who
represented the families of the three IRA members shot dead by
the SAS in Gibraltar in March 1988. The latter killings are to
be the subject of an oral hearing before the European Commission
on Human Rights on 3rd September. Relatives are arguing that the
right to life was violated by the SAS. The full report of the
Stevens inquiry has never been made public, along with the
Stalker/Sampson reports. A San Francisco judge has demanded that
the British government release these documents to the court in
order that it may judge the extradition case involving James
Smyth. The documents could reveal if collusion between loyalist
paramilitary groups and the security forces is such that to
return to Ireland would threaten Smyth's life - one of the
grounds for refusing extradition in the recently re-negotiated
treaty between Britain and the US. The treaty also allows for the
production of any information relevant to the case. Smyth is one
of 38 prisoners who escaped from the Maze prison in 1983.
The Sunday Business Post, 23.5.93.

Statewatch vol 3 no 3 May-June 1993