From today’s Irish News:
Relatives of people killed by British agent Freddie Scappaticci are “openly questioning” whether he is dead after a British government department refused to provide basic information to some of his victims.
In 2003 west Belfast man Scappaticci, a former commander of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit (ISU), was identified as the agent Stakeknife.
The ISU, also known as the “Nutting Squad”, was responsible for hunting down and killing informers.
It is claimed Scappaticci died last year, although few details of the circumstances have been made public.
Concerns have now been raised after the London-based Cabinet Office refused to respond to requests for information from lawyers acting for relatives of people killed by Scappaticci’s IRA unit.
Last year, Kevin Winters of KRW, who represents 12 families of people killed by the ISU, wrote to the Cabinet Office requesting basic information including on what date Scappaticci died and where he was buried.They also asked if a post-mortem report was carried out and if it can be released to the people he represents.
In addition Mr Winters asked if any statutory authority or agency was made aware of Scappaticci’s death.
After sending several letters Mr Winters was directed to a firm of solicitors believed to represent Scappaticci’s estate.
It is understood the failure of the Cabinet Office to respond has now prompted a threat to take legal action.
“After Freddie Scappaticci died we were directed to the Cabinet Office to find out more details around his death but after 18 months we still don’t have a response,” Mr Winters said.
“Whenever state agencies retreat from disclosing basic information like this it only serves to fuel suspicions.“In fact, some of our clients are openly questioning whether or not Freddie Scappaticci is actually dead.”
I think he is dead. He was 77 when he died; let’s face it, he never looked the healthiest. But why all the secrecy? Or is that just the default position of the spooks?
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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