Plot to kill Gerry Adams touched upon in Finucane report

A PLOT BY loyalist paramilitaries to kill Gerry Adams will be touched upon in a new report into the killing of solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989.

Adams revealed this evening that Desmond de Silva, whose report looks into the solicitor’s murder by paramilitaries, has written to him to say that a part of his report looks at “a plot by loyalist paramilitaries to attack you in May 1987″.

The Sinn Féin President called on the Irish government to insist that a public inquiry into Finucane’s death is held.

In his letter to Adams, de Silva states:

Whilst the focus of my report is Patrick Finucane’s murder, it was appropriate for me to examine it in its proper context. Among the surrounding key issues is the role that was played by the British Army agent, Brian Nelson. Accordingly, I wanted you to be aware prior to publication that my report touches on the plot by loyalist paramilitaries to attack you in May 1987.

Commenting on the letter, Adams said it comes as “no surprise” that in looking at the British agent, de Silva also had to look at a plot to kill him.

“Collusion between British state forces and unionist death squads was a matter of institutional practise by successive British governments throughout the decades of conflict in the North,” he said.

“It played a part in the attack in March 1984 in which I and three others were shot and it has already been reported that the British were aware of the planned to kill me in May 1987″, he added.

The report is due to be published on 12 December.

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