A report into the activities of the British army agent known as Stakeknife is not expected to identify Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci as the notorious informer.
The long-awaited Operation Kenova interim report is due to be made public on Friday.
In 2003 Scappaticci was named by the media as Stakeknife, who was run by the British army’s Force Research Unit.
The south Belfast native, who is reported to have died last year, always denied the allegation.
Scappaticci was former commander of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit (ISU), which was responsible for hunting down suspected informers and agents.
It is believed some of those interrogated by the unit, also known as the Nutting Squad, were tortured in a bid to extract confessions.
Scappaticci’s activities and those of the feared ISU have been investigated by Operation Kenova since it was set up in 2016.
It’s former head Jon Boutcher was appointed as PSNI chief constable last year.
It is understood that although Mr Boutcher has recused himself from involvement in the report’s publication, he and his successor, former Police Scotland chief constable Sir Iain Livingstone, will both attend Friday’s launch in Belfast
Initially set up to examine the activities of Stakeknife, the remit of the investigation team was later widened to include several other Troubles-related events.
To date Operation Kenova has cost around of £40m and Friday’s interim report, which runs to more than 200 pages, will be the first it has produced since it was established seven years ago.
In total 28 Files have been sent by Operation Kenova to the Public Prosecution Service linking 32 people to a series of incidents, including abduction and murder.
Of that figure 12 were military, two were members of MI5 (Security Service), one was a police officer and one a prosecutor.
The overall figure also includes 16 civilians, believed to be republicans.
Despite the large numbers involved prosecutors have decided no action will be taken against any of the suspects.
In fact, the only person to face prosecution arising from Operation Kenova’s Stakeknife probe is Freddie Scappaticci himself, for unrelated matters.
In 2018 he was sentenced to three months in custody, suspended for 12 months after he admitted two counts of possessing extreme pornography.
At the time the court heard the charges related to at least 329 images, many involving animals.
The charges were brought by officers from Operation Kenova after police discovered the disturbing images when they seized a laptop after a search of his home.
In 2020, the PPS confirmed it was taking no action against a man, believed to be Scappaticci, for perjury, while the same decision was reached in relation to two MI5 officers, and a former prosecutor for misconduct in office.
While some will hope that the interim report will bring some closure to their long running trauma, others are less optimistic.
Some relatives have already voiced frustration over ongoing delays in making the report public, including Belfast native Fran Mulhern.
His brother Joseph Mulhern was abducted and killed by the IRA in 1993 and it was claimed that he was an informer.
His father Frank later said he was given an account of his son’s death by Scappaticci.
Mr Mulhern believes that despite any new information that may come to light justice will not have been served.
“Operation Kenova has taken eight years and so far cost over £40m,” he said.
“It will result in not a single prosecution.
“For all the new information that the report brings to light, justice has not and will not be done.”
Mr Mulhern added there has been no accountability.
“Despite an agent in the employ of the British state ordering the death of Joseph and over twenty others, nobody will be held accountable,” he said.
“I have nothing further to add at this point.”
There continues to be uncertainty over whether all those condemned to death after interrogation by Scappaticci and the ISU were actually working as double agents within the republican movement.
Some of those interrogated and executed as informers by the ISU are now known to have been wrongly accused.
It is not known if some were sent to their deaths by Scappaticci, and other informers within the ISU, to protect the cover of fellow agents.
Families linked to the Stakeknife investigation will also receive individual reports in the coming weeks.
For many a key question will centre on whether their loved ones could have been saved.
Others will also want to know if their loved ones were in fact supplying information to the British, despite how difficult the truth of that may be for their families.
With the stigma of the ‘tout’ still very much alive in Irish society, the answer to that question, if provided, may bring comfort for some, while for others it will be devastating confirmation that their loved ones were in fact compromised.
British state agencies have a long-standing policy of ‘neither confirm nor deny’ (NCND) in relation to sensitive security issues.
While the Kenova team is expected to stick to that policy in public, its approach in private remains to be seen.
The issue of whether Freddie Scappaticci in officially identified as Stakeknife may also fall under NCND.
A spokesman for Operation Kenova would not be drawn on whether or not the agent is going to be identified ahead of Friday’s publication of the interim report.
The Irish News understands he will not.
Solicitor Kevin Winters, of KRW Law, acts for several families whose loved ones were killed by the ISU.
He said believe NCND should not be applied to Scappaticci.
“We understand there may be an issue in the report actually naming Freddie Scappaticci as the agent Stakeknife,” he said.
“We appreciate there is very strict protocol around the issue of NCND.
“However given that Freddie Scappaticci is dead, as indeed is his wife, then the argument about right to life and welfare of agents and their next of kin ought not to apply.”
