Ireland: RUC suspected in lawyer's murder

By Dave Riley

A well-known human rights lawyer who had received death threats for her work representing nationalists in one of Northern Ireland's most volatile communities was killed on March 15 when a bomb blew up her car as she drove from her home.

A loyalist guerilla group, the Red Hand Defenders, later claimed responsibility for the blast. The Red Hand Defenders are a small band of dissidents dedicated to upsetting the Good Friday agreement, and Nelson's murder is the third they have claimed since they began a campaign of pipe-bomb attacks on Catholic families and arson attacks on churches last May.

Red Hand Defenders is a cover name for the old Loyalist Volunteer Force of “King” Billy Wright, who was murdered in prison in late 1997. It is believed that they have recently recruited members of the Portadown-Lurgan Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

Nelson had represented the residents of the Catholic housing projects lining Garvaghy Road in nearby Portadown, a flashpoint each July as the uniformed men of the Orange Order try to walk from Drumcree Church at the beginning of the loyalist “marching season”.

The murder has sent shock waves across Northern Ireland and was clearly timed to undermine the peace process. It is already being likened to the murder by British agents of Derry human rights lawyer Pat Finucane 10 years ago.

Many suspect the involvement of elements of the RUC in the murder. Nelson was the foremost legal defender of nationalists against British harassment and violence in the mid-Ulster area, and her work routinely exposed the sectarian nature of the RUC and Royal Irish Regiment in County Armagh.

As a solicitor working in the Lurgan area, Nelson recorded dozens of complaints against crown forces personnel every month.

Nelson recently gave testimony to United Nations authorities about RUC attempts to intimidate her, ranging from sectarian slurs to death threats. Her information was central to a damning report by the UN's special rapporteur, Dato' Param Cumaraswamy, who found the RUC guilty of “intimidation, hindrance, harassment and improper interference” against defence solicitors.

Nelson recently sued the RUC for threatening to kill her. In her last interview with the Irish News, published on the morning of her death, she said there is no rule of law in Portadown and that the RUC is completely discredited.

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