Gerry Adams's arrest a bid to influence elections, says Martin McGuinness

[Fear Fiain]

Gerry Adams's arrest a bid to influence elections, says Martin McGuinness
Northern Ireland's deputy first minister attacks Police Service of Northern Ireland, saying it contains 'a dark side'

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...rthern-ireland

Martin McGuinness has claimed that the arrest of Gerry Adams in connection with the murder of a mother of 10 was a political move designed to influence elections in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

In an attack on the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Sinn Féin deputy first minister said on Thursday the police force contained a "dark side" which was "maliciously and vehemently hostile" to the peace process.

"I view his [Adams's] arrest as a deliberate attempt to influence the outcome of the elections that are due to take place in three weeks' time, north and south on this island," McGuinness said.

But the Irish government has rejected McGuinness's claim of political interference, while the republic's main opposition party Fianna Fáil called on Sinn Féin to withdraw allegations of political influence which they said were insulting to the victim's family.

Adams remains in custody at a police station in Northern Ireland where he has been held since Wednesday night over the kidnapping, killing and secret burial of widow Jean McConville close to Christmas 1972.

The arrest and the subsequent row over Adams's detention is threatening to destablise the power sharing settlement in Belfast. Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt said it was "frankly outrageous" that McGuinness was blaming the arrest on "the dark side of policing".

"Quite simply the police must be allowed to follow evidence wherever it leads them. It is a fundamental legal principle that justice and the due process of law must apply equally to everyone in a society," Nesbitt added.

Earlier on Thursday, a spokesman for the Northern Ireland Office rejected the suggestion that the arrest was politically motivated. The spokesman said: "This is entirely an operational matter for the PSNI."

A PSNI spokesman said: "Detectives from the serious crime branch investigating the abduction and murder of Jean McConville in 1972 have arrested a 65-year-old man in Antrim. The suspect is currently being interviewed by detectives at the serious crime suite in Antrim police station."

Just before Adams walked into the police station on Wednesday evening, he denied to RTÉ television that he had anything to with the McConville murder. Adams also rejected recent claims by former IRA bomber and convicted killer Peter Rogers that he and McGuinness had ordered him to transport explosives to bomb Britain in 1980.

In a statement issued shortly after it was announced that he had been arrested, Adams said: "I believe that the killing of Jean McConville and the secret burial of her body was wrong and a grievous injustice to her and her family.

"Well-publicised, malicious allegations have been made against me. I reject these. 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."

The arrest of Adams follows the decision of an American court to compel a US university to hand over a series of tape recorded interviews with former republican paramilitaries. The Boston College Belfast Project tapes, which also include frank testimonies from former loyalist paramilitaries, were only meant to have been made public once an individual who gave candid interviews about their role in political violence had died.

[Fear Fiain]

I think this is a dangerous trend, that American courts care more about protecting the genocidal British occupation forces than about upholding American laws related to contracts, and privacy protections for American lawful residents and in some cases citizens.

This also hurts the future efforts of Academics in Boston, where there's a large Irish population, even a gaeltacht, and where many provisionals fled, to seek objective historical data on the PIRA, unclouded by propaganda or standing orders.

As for the arrest of Gerry Adams, I think it's a joke and it threatens the peace process.