JEAN MCCONVILLE MURDER: GERRY ADAMS FACES POLICE QUIZ OVER IRA KILLING

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams to be questioned over Jean McConville murder

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams to be questioned over Jean McConville murder

SINN Féin president Gerry Adams is to face a police grilling over the IRA murder Jean McConville over 40 years ago.

It is understood detectives from the PSNI’s Terrorist Investigation Unit are preparing to question him under caution about the murder of the mother-of-ten who became known as on one of ‘The Disappeared’.

At the time of her murder he was the ‘Officer Commanding’ the IRA’s Belfast Brigade.

The questioning will be based largely on the Boston College tapes in which former IRA man Brendan Hughes said Mr Adams gave the her order for her abduction and murder in 1972 alleging she was an Army spy.

As the police wagons start to circle around Adams over his past, the former west Belfast MP announced on Monday that he had asked his solicitor to contact the police to check if they want to interview him about Mrs McConville’s murder.

Mr Adams again declared that he was not involved in the disappearance of the west Belfast mother of ten.

She was taken from her flat by the IRA in December 1972 and murdered.

Mr Adams said he was aware of speculation that police might want to talk to him about the McConville case.

He said her murder was “a terrible injustice” in which he had played no part.

The Sinn Féin leader was strongly critical of the Boston College Oral History project, claiming some of the individuals interviewed had gone to great lengths to attack the republican struggle and the peace process.

US courts ordered that the tapes of former IRA prisoners interviewed for the Boston project, such as Brendan Hughes and Dolours Price, should be handed over to detectives investigating Jean McConville’s murder.

Last Saturday, former IRA chief of staff Ivor Bell was charged with membership of a proscribed organisation and aiding and abetting in the murder of the 37-year-old mother.

Bell, 77, of Ramoan Gardens, in west Belfast was remanded in custody after a detective objected to the granting of bail saying he feared the defendant would flee the jurisdiction.

His solicitor said the charges against Bell were based on the Boston College tapes which interviewed former IRA men and women about their involvement in murders, shootings and bombings during the Troubles.

Last November, a tape from beyond grave came back to haunt Sinn Fein chief Gerry Adams over his role in ‘The Disaappeared’.

Ivor Bell charged in connection with the IRA murder of Jean McConville

Ivor Bell charged in connection with the IRA murder of Jean McConville

IRA Belfast commander Brendan ‘The Dark’ Hughes accused Gerry Adams on the tape of ordering the murder and secret burial of mother of ten Jean McConville in 1972.

The tape was broadcast earlier on BBC 1 Northern Ireland presented by award winning investigative reporter Darragh McIntrye.

Hughes, a former hunger striker, said the Sinn Féin president was one of the heads of a unit that kidnapped, killed and buried west Belfast woman Jean McConville.

In the recording, Hughes, who died in 2008, is heard saying: “There was only one man who gave that order for that woman to be executed – and that man is now the head of Sinn Féin.”

Hughes also says that Adams went to the McConville children after their mother was abducted and promised an internal IRA investigation.

“That man is the man who gave the order for that woman to be executed. I did not give the order to execute that woman. He did.”

Adams was challenged on the BBC’s Storyville programme over whether he was a senior Provisionals commander in Belfast at the time McConville was abducted, just before Christmas 1972.

Adams replies: “That’s not true.”

He added that he did not “shirk” his own responsibilities in the conflict and still insists he was never in the IRA.

In response to the tape, the Louth TD, accused his former friend of lying.

“Brendan is telling lies,” Adams told the programme. He adds: “I had no act or part to play in the abduction, killing or burial of Jean McConville or any of the others.”

Gerry Adams will soon will be able to put his case to PSNI detectives who are trying to catch Mrs McConville’s abductors and killers.

 

 

 

 

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