Amnesty International today (23 May) responded to the report of the public inquiry into allegations of security force collusion in the murder of the solicitor Rosemary Nelson.

Halya Gowan, who researched the human rights situation in Northern Ireland for over two decades for Amnesty International, including the threats made against Rosemary Nelson, said:

“Rosemary Nelson carried out her professional work courageously within a fraught environment of sectarian violence and intimidation because she believed in the rule of law and justice for all.

“Her loss was deeply felt by those whose lives she touched. The failure to prosecute those responsible for, and complicit in, her killing is a sad indictment of the justice system in Northern Ireland.

“The failure to learn that repeated omissions can amount to collusion is another equally sad example of selective learning from the past.

“Rosemary Nelson was threatened, intimidated, and eventually killed, simply for doing her work as a lawyer and defending human rights".