Northern Ireland police yesterday questioned Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, a chief negotiator in the Irish peace process, over the Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) murder of a woman suspected of being an informant in 1972.
The 65-year-old republican leader was arrested on Wednesday night over the killing of Jean McConville, after voluntarily presenting himself at a police station in Antrim, Northern Ireland, for an interview.
Adams strongly denied any involvement in the murder — one of the most infamous incidents in Northern Ireland’s violent history — saying in a statement that the allegations were “malicious.”
Photo: Reuters
“While I have never disassociated myself from the IRA and I never will, I am innocent of any part in the abduction, killing or burial of Mrs McConville,” Adams said.
Sinn Fein was once the political arm of the IRA, a paramilitary group that waged a bloody campaign over three decades for British-controlled Northern Ireland to become part of Ireland.
The party now shares power with the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party in the devolved government in Belfast. It is also represented in the Irish parliament in Dublin.
Sinn Fein Vice President Mary Lou McDonald said Adams’ arrest was “politically motivated,” as it came three weeks ahead of local and European Parliament elections.
McConville, a 37-year-old widow with 10 children, was snatched from her home in west Belfast, becoming one of more than a dozen of the so-called “disappeared” in the conflict.
The IRA accused her of being an informer for the British army, although a police watchdog later found no evidence to support the claim.
The IRA admitted her murder in 1999 and four years later her remains were found on a beach in County Louth. She had been shot in the back of the head.
McConville’s son Michael, who was 11 years old when he saw his mother dragged away, said he was pleased that the police were “doing their job.”
However, he said in a BBC interview that he still refused to name the people he saw taking his mother, saying he still feared reprisals.
“If I told the police a thing, either me or one of my family members or one of my children would get shot by these people,” he said. “Everybody thinks this has all gone away — it hasn’t gone away.”
Nobody has ever been found guilty of McConville’s murder, but former IRA leader Ivor Bell, 77, was last month charged with aiding and abetting those involved. Aside from Adams, five others have also been questioned.
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