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Legacy body ‘lacks powers of a public inquiry to examine Sean Brown murder'

Legacy body ‘lacks powers of a public inquiry to examine Sean Brown murder'

The Irish Government is among those who have backed Mr Brown's family's long campaign for a public inquiry.
Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal in Belfast affirmed a previous court ruling, compelling the UK government to hold a public inquiry into his killing.
However, Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn has applied for a Supreme Court appeal on the judicial rulings.
Bridie Brown, the widow of murdered GAA official Sean Brown, holds a picture of him, outside the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast (PA)
Mr Brown, 61, the then chairman of Wolfe Tones GAA Club in the Co Londonderry town of Bellaghy, was ambushed, kidnapped and murdered by loyalist paramilitaries as he locked the gates of the club in May 1997.
No-one has ever been convicted of his killing.
Preliminary inquest proceedings last year heard that in excess of 25 people had been linked by intelligence to the murder, including several state agents.
It was also alleged in court that surveillance of a suspect in the murder was temporarily stopped on the evening of the killing, only to resume again the following morning.
In an interview earlier, Mr Brown's elderly widow Bridie, 87, said she does not know why her husband was killed, and reiterated her call for a public inquiry into his death to answer the questions her family has.
'I don't know why they chose Sean, I just do not know because he was the same with everybody,' she said during an interview on BBC's The GAA Social podcast.
'He treated everybody alike, he walked with both sides of the community.'
She also paid tribute to the turnout of thousands in Bellaghy last Friday evening to support her family's campaign for a public inquiry.
People in the town of Bellaghy, Co Londonderry, which came to a standstill on Friday night as they took part in a march in support of the family of Sean Brown (PA)
'It was emotional,' she said.
'Never in my wildest dreams had I thought about so big a turnout.'
Last month, Mr Benn said he is taking steps to ensure that the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) is capable of carrying out an independent and rigorous investigation into Mr Brown's murder.
During an appearance at the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, ICRIR chief commissioner Sir Declan Morgan was pressed by SDLP leader Claire Hanna on the Brown case.
Sir Declan said if the case came to the ICRIR, his investigators would carry out a cold case review, a scoping exercise and would treat the case as a criminal investigation and gather all the evidence.
'But I agree that we could not do the next step which is subsequent to that, once the terms of reference have been set, and up to that point, we're definitely Article 2 compliant,' he told MPs at the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.
'But the next bit is having identified what the issues are to then organise a hearing with proper representation by lawyers in relation to that, and also understanding that the sensitive information arrangements, in my view, need to be reviewed and the commission needs to be able to exercise proper challenge in relation to those.'
Claire Hanna has supported the Brown family (MP)
Speaking outside the meeting, Ms Hanna said the ICRIR in its current form 'cannot fully meet the needs of the family of Sean Brown'.
'Today's comments from Sir Declan Morgan are welcome and shine a light on where the ICRIR falls short,' she said.
'Any further delay to the resuming and restarting of inquests alongside the continued denial of a public inquiry to the Brown family is the British Government delaying truth and justice.
'The SDLP is committed to the delivery of legacy structures that families can buy into. Sir Declan's comments underline our key concerns about deficiencies relating to participation by families in proceedings and the continued existence of a veto on information by the Secretary of State.'
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In initial court filings, Brown claimed to have less than $50,000 in assets. But that figure has changed drastically in subsequent filings, as he included or revealed additional assets technically owned by trusts or corporate entities he controls. Creditors and the trustee assigned to the case have criticized Brown for the financial mixups and his conduct in court - including a March hearing that he asked to postpone because he said he was dealing with an unspecified medical issue. "The Debtor, however, was not in poor health," the U.S. trustee later wrote in a court filing. "In fact, the Debtor participated as an invited guest on The Joe Rogan Experience (a podcast) for 98 minutes the very next day." Brown's first bankruptcy attorney has since resigned and his case has been converted to Chapter 7 - a form of bankruptcy in which the court can seize assets and garnish wages to repay creditors. (His current bankruptcy attorney, Chad Van Horn, declined comment.) According to court records obtained by USA TODAY Sports, the trustee in Brown's case is in the process of selling two of his homes, and also asking a judge to force him to provide accurate financial data to the court. The next hearing in the case is July 24. Andrew Dawson, a professor of bankruptcy law at the University of Miami, said the bankruptcy proceedings are actually protecting Brown by pausing any lawsuits filed against him and preventing new suits from being filed. But disobeying court orders could, in theory, prompt a judge to throw out the case. "If he loses the protection, in some ways, he might be worse off," Dawson said. "Now, creditors are actually aware that, wow, he owes a lot of money to a lot of people, and there may be some property we didn't know. It leads to what we sort of call the proverbial race to the courthouse. Everyone wants to go and file their claim." Brown apparently in United Arab Emirates One will find little evidence of Brown's financial issues on his social media feeds, where he portrays himself as living the same luxurious lifestyle he led when he was in the NFL. Since arriving in the Middle East nearly six weeks ago, he has posted images of sprawling marble floors and flashy sports cars. He celebrated his 37th birthday on a yacht with several of his children. On June 26, he posted a screenshot on X of an account balance exceeding $24 million. "Bankrupt over," he wrote in part of the caption. Tamara Lave, a former public defender and law professor at the University of Miami, said the frequent social media posts could complicate Brown's bankruptcy claims because they could be later used against him in court. "I think silence would be a virtue for him, right now," she said. Brown also is still wanted by the state of Florida after he allegedly fired two gunshots at Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, 41, during the May 16 incident in Miami. According to the arrest warrant, the shots came after a physical altercation between Brown and Nantambu, who previously sued the former NFL wide receiver, won a judgment of nearly $1 million from a jury and is now among the creditors named in Brown's bankruptcy case. Miami police have repeatedly declined to answer questions about the warrant or Brown's case, citing "an open active investigation." And it is unclear whether they, or the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, are aware of Brown's whereabouts or have been in contact with him or his attorney. At least as of July 23, Brown appeared to be living in the United Arab Emirates, according to social media posts. Lave said that would mean he could only be taken into custody in one of two ways: If he returned to the United States, where he would likely be detained by Customs and Border Protection, or if the U.S. asked the UAE to extradite him. "I think it's more a geopolitical question - what the UAE would want to do in terms of the relationship with our president," Lave said. Brown campaigned for President Donald Trump and spoke at one of his rallies last fall. Online, at least, Brown remains relatively easy to find. He has 2.5 million followers on X, where many of his posts include racist, homophobic or otherwise vulgar language. He has also hosted multiple livestreams in what appears to be an attempt to drum up interest for a Belize-based gambling company, During one such stream, which is no longer archived online, Brown balked at the suggestion from a commenter that he was "hiding out" in the Middle East. "I'm here full-time," he said. "We're not hiding." Contact Tom Schad at tschad@ or on social media @

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