THE IDENTITY of the killers of Archbishop Michael Courtney, who was shot in Burundi five years ago, will probably never be revealed, an inquest heard yesterday. The inquest was conducted in Nenagh by Archbishop Courtney’s brother, Dr Louis Courtney, who is the coroner for north Tipperary.
Dr Courtney told the jury he believed his family would never know the identity of those behind the shooting in December 2003.
Dr Courtney said it was his belief that his brother, who was Papal Nuncio to Burundi, was shot in a random act rather than as someone targeted because he was a senior Catholic Church figure.
The explanation he had received was that the assailants had ambushed the car his brother was travelling in because they were looking for food, clothes or other supplies.
He said other cars had been ambushed on the same route on the day of the fatal shooting, but his brother was the only one killed as far as he was aware.
Dr Courtney said his brother was being chauffeured as a back seat passenger in a white Land Rover Discovery at the time of the attack.
The vehicle was flying the Vatican flag but he believed the flag was too small for a gunman to see “if you were lying with a machine gun in the bush”.
He said he had deliberately delayed an inquest until now as he was allowing time for further information on the killing. But despite considerable investigations, there were no further developments.
Dr Courtney said that one suspected assailant “apparently” died subsequently. That person had been under medical care and “apparently died in hospital, and that would not surprise me”.
In his own deposition which he read out to the jury, Dr Courtney said he identified the body of his brother when it arrived back in Ireland four days after the killing and personally performed a superficial postmortem. He had been informed of bullet wounds his brother sustained, including one to the head. He said his brother’s body had a bandage around the head and he took photographs of the remains in an open coffin.
Dr Courtney said his brother was the only Papal Nuncio to die violently in 500 years.
He said he had an audience with the late Pope John Paul II after the killing and the pontiff was visibly upset and told him that his brother had done a lot of good work.
Dr Courtney said his brother had a bulletproof car at his disposal but did not use it on the day he was shot.
He was living in “considerable fear” for the three years he was in Burundi but was trying to show he was not afraid.
Dr Courtney told the jury there was enough evidence to enable the completion of a death certificate.
The jury found that the archbishop, aged 58, and formerly of Summerhill, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, died on December 29th, 2003 at La Prince Louis Rwagasore Hospital in Bujumbura, where he was taken after the shooting. Death was due to shock and haemorrhage caused by bullet wounds to the head, chest and leg fired by persons unknown.
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