No charges over lawyer 'threats'

Rosemary Nelson died in a loyalist car bomb attack

Police officers alleged to have threatened human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson, before she was murdered by loyalists in Northern Ireland, will not face any internal disciplinary proceedings.

Mrs Nelson was killed when a bomb exploded under her car outside her home in Lurgan, County Armagh, in March last year.

She and a number of witnesses made sworn statements in l997 and l998 that she was threatened with death and insulted by RUC officers.

The Independent Commission for Police Complaints (ICPC), who carried out an investigation into the claims, wrote to tthe Nelson family explaining their decision.

Rosemary Nelson (left) brought the Garvaghy Road case to Downing Street

The letter said there was "insufficient evidence" to support a disciplinary procedure against the officers alleged to have been involved.

Sinn Fein's Dr Dara O'Hagan said the decision not to discipline was a "disgrace" but not unexpected.

The Upper Bann assembly member said: "It highlights the official condoning of unaccountability and action with impunity that is so much part of the RUC psyche."

Nobody has been charged with the murder of Mrs Nelson, 40, a mother of three.

But the decision was also denounced by Ed Lynch, the New Jersey based chairman of the Lawyers' Alliance for Justice in Ireland.

He said: "On the day Rosemary Nelson was killed, Ronnie Flanagan (RUC chief constable) called my office and left word that no stone would be left unturned in the search for those responsible for the dastardly act.

"I now understand more clearly, that in the North of Ireland, some stones are best left undisturbed."

Mrs Nelson represented the nationalist Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition in their campaign over the controversial march by the Protestant Orange Order in Portadown.

The allegations of threats against Mrs Nelson were included in a report by United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of lawyers and judges, Param Cumaraswamy.

Leading human rights organisations in the UK and Europe have also supported calls for a public inquiry into allegations of police collusion in the killing.