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(by Suzanne Breen, Sunday Tribune)

The father of murdered Loyalist Volunteer Force leader, Billy Wright, will meet the British government this week to demand that the public inquiry into his son's death is not restricted.

David Wright believes holding the inquiry under the 2005 Inquiries Act will render it powerless and allow the suppression of any embarrassing evidence about official collusion in his son's murder.

Billy Wright was shot dead in the Maze prison in 1997 by the INLA but his family allege state collusion. Two years ago, retired Canadian judge, Peter Cory, recommended an inquiry into the case.

It was set up under the 1953 Prisons Act and opened in June under the chairmanship of retired Scottish judge, Lord Ranald McLean. However, he has applied for it to be now held under the controversial new legislation.

Opponents of the new law claim it gives the British government greater opportunities to use the argument of national security to mount cover-ups. The Wrights will raise their objections with Peter Hain at Stormont on Thursday.

They will be accompanied by human rights' groups, British-Irish Watch and the Committee on the Administration of Justice, and DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson.

This article appears in the October 9, 2005 edition of the Sunday Tribune.

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