The British and Irish governments have denied that the arrest of republican leader Gerry Adams is politically motivated, as Northern Ireland police questioned him over a notorious IRA murder.
The Sinn Fein president, who played a leading role in the peace process in the troubled British province, was arrested on Wednesday night (local time) over the killing of mother-of-10 Jean McConville in 1972.
Adams, 65, strongly denied involvement in one of the most infamous incidents of the so-called Troubles in Northern Ireland and questioned the timing of the arrest before local and European elections.
"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.
Police must charge or release him by Friday night.
McConville, 37, was snatched from her home in west Belfast in front of her screaming children, becoming one of more than a dozen so-called "disappeared" of the conflict.
Her body was found on a beach, shot in the back of the head, in 2003.
Sinn Fein was once the political arm of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the now disbanded paramilitary group which waged a bloody campaign over three decades for Northern Ireland to become part of Ireland.
The party now shares power with its old foe, the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), in a devolved government in Belfast and Sinn Fein member Martin McGuinness is deputy first minister.
McGuinness, a former IRA commander, accused a section of the police of trying to undermine the party with the "malicious" allegations and said the arrest was a "deliberate attempt to influence the outcome of the elections in three weeks time."
The British and Irish governments, which worked together on the 1998 Good Friday peace accords that largely ended the violence, tried to calm rising tensions.
"There has been absolutely no political interference in this issue," British Prime Minister David Cameron said.
His Irish counterpart, Enda Kenny, added: "All I can say is that I hope the president of Sinn Fein answers in the best way he can, to the fullest extent that he can, questions that are being asked about a live murder investigation."
Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson, leader of the DUP, said the arrest proved that "no one is above the law".
"It would be political policing if the police had information and didn't follow it up because of the political profile of an individual," Robinson said.
The IRA had wrongly accused McConville of being an informer for the British army, but finally admitted her murder in 1999.
Victim's son too scared to name killers
McConville's son says he knows who was responsible but even now is too scared to speak out.
Michael McConville told the BBC he welcomed Adams' questioning as a sign the police were "taking this case very seriously".
McConville was 11 when he and his nine brothers and sisters watched his mother be dragged screaming out of their home in Belfast in 1972, never to be seen again.
But he said he still refused to tell detectives who he saw that night because, even 16 years after peace in Northern Ireland was agreed, he feared for the safety of his family.
"I never told anyone who it was. I still haven't told anyone who it was," McConville said in an interview with BBC radio.
"I wouldn't tell the police - 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.
"Everybody thinks this has all gone away - it hasn't gone away."
He said he still saw some of those responsible for abducting his mother, and "when I see them the blood boils in my body. I can't stand these people for what they've done."
But he added: "I have a young family. I don't want nothing to happen to them. I think if my mother was alive today, she wouldn't want anything to happen to them."
The IRA made clear to McConville the repercussions of speaking out when they abducted him about a week after they took his mother, a 37-year-old widow.
"They brought to me to a house and tied me to a chair. They were beating me with sticks around my heads and my arms," he recalled.
"They put a gun to my head and said they were going to shoot me. They fired a cap gun and stuck a penknife in my leg.
"They said, if you tell anything about any of the IRA, we'll come back and we'll shoot you, or we'll shoot one of your family members."
Jean McConville was suspected of being an informant for the British Army, although an investigation by the Police Ombudsman in 2006 found no evidence she was.
A member of the IRA visited her children a few weeks after her death to drop off her purse and wedding ring, her son said.
But the paramilitary group only admitted her murder in 1999.
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) waged a bloody battle for three decades for British-controlled Northern Ireland to become part of the Republic of Ireland.
An estimated 3500 people died during The Troubles, and the vast majority of the cases remain unsolved.
AFP
source: newshub archive
