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Gerry Adams released without charge over the 1972 murder of Jean McConville Gerry Adams slams his ‘malicious and sinister’ arrest over 1972 murder of Jean McConville
(about 4 hours later)
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has been released without charge in connection with the murder and abduction of Jean McConville and with being a member of the IRA, both of which he has denied. Gerry Adams hit out at the “old guard” within the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) when he was released after being questioned for four days about a notorious IRA murder  in 1972.
Police will now send a dossier to the Public Prosecution Service in Belfast, who will then decide if any further action against Mr Adams should be taken. But he also offered his support to the PSNI as a force, and repeatedly emphasised that his arrest should not undermine the peace process at a press briefing.
Earlier today senior Sinn Fein member Gerry Kelly spoke to Mr Adams at Anterim police station. “Those who authorised my arrest could have done it differently,” he said.
Mr Kelly said Mr Adams looked well, and said: “Like myself and all the members of Sinn Fein he believes that the timing of this was political, that the extension of it was political and he’s worried about the damage that it might be doing to the image of policing as well and that it’s been mishandled in that type of fashion.” “They didn’t have to use pernicious coercive legislation to deal with a legacy issue, even one as serious as this which I was voluntarily prepared to deal with. They didn’t have to do it in the middle of an election campaign.”
Mr Adams, 65, was understood to have been questioned for up to 17 hours a day by detectives over the 1972 murder of Jean McConville, and for being a member of the IRA, which he denied. He said the arrest was a result of the “old guard using the old methods”. Prosecutors will now decide whether the Sinn Fein president is to face charges.
Police had until 8pm today to charge or release Mr Adams after a judge gave police a 48-hour extension to question Mr Adams on Friday. Mr Adams’s detention at a police interrogation facility near Belfast had threatened to destabilise the Irish peace process, with republicans denouncing it as “political policing”.
Mr Adams, the former MP for West Belfast and currently an elected representative for County Louth in the republic of Ireland, presented himself at Antrim police station on Wednesday evening for questioning in connection with the murder of Ms McConville, one of Northern Ireland’s disappeared who was wrongly accused of being a British Army informant by the IRA. Officers questioned Mr Adams about the murder of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of 10 who was abducted and buried by the IRA, who kept her body hidden for decades. It is thought he was also interrogated  about allegations of IRA membership.
The 37-year-old widow and mother of 10 was dragged out of her house in front of her children by the IRA in 1972, abducted, shot, and secretly buried. “I want to make it clear I support the PSNI,” Mr Adams continued. “The old guard is against change. Whether it is within the PSNI leadership, within elements of unionism or the far fringes of self-proclaimed but pseudo republicanism, they can’t win.”
Ms McConville’s body was not found until 2003, when it was recovered from a beach in County Louth. He said it was “crucial” to ensure that he was seen to be treated fairly and in the same way as others, saying that “to send any other signal is to encourage the bigots”.
Martin McGuinness, Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister, has branded Mr Adam’s arrest as an effort by some police officers to “settle old scores, whatever the political cost”. He said he was “innocent of any part in a conspiracy to abduct, kill and bury Mrs McConville”.
At a rally held on Saturday, at which a mural of Mr Adams was unveiled naming him a “peacemaker, leader, visionary”, Mr McGuinness said: “In my view, this is a failed attempt at the replay of the effort in 1978 to charge Gerry Adams with membership of the IRA. That case was based on hearsay, gossip and newspaper articles. He said the allegations against him were based “almost exclusively on hearsay”.
Mr McGuinness accused the PSNI of using the “same old dirty tricks” as were employed thirty-six years previously, “deliberately and cynically exploiting the awful killing of Jean McConville and the grief and hurt inflicted on her family”. Mr Adams, flanked by Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, said that while the past needs to be dealt with, “there can be no going back”.
Sinn Fein signed up to support the PSNI in 2007, which was seen at the time as a landmark in the peace process. Mr McGuiness said his republican party would review their support for the police service if Mr Adams is charged, however. “Peace needs to be built with determination... That remains my attention, my commitment and Sinn Fein’s constant endeavour.”
Ms McConville’s son Michael told BBC Radio4’s Today programme last week that he knew the names of some of the people that he believes are his mother’s killers, but that he would never reveal them to police. MrAdams described the campaign against him as “malicious” and “sinister”. But he said the IRA “had gone, it is finished” and said what had happened “could not be allowed” to undermine peace in Northern Ireland. Mr Adams has always denied involvement with the IRA.
He said: “I do know the names of the people, I’ve never told anyone. A report detailing the evidence gathered by police will now be sent to the Northern Ireland Public Prosecution Service (PPS). It will be up to PPS lawyers to decide if there is enough evidence to bring any charges, and what those charges would be.
“I wouldn’t tell the police. If I told the police now a thing, me or one of my family members or one of my children would get shot by those people.” The Director of Public Prosecutions, Barra McGrory QC, announced that he has excused himself from involvement in the case, since he had in the past acted as Mr Adams’s lawyer.
But his sister, Helen McKendry, has said she is “no longer afraid” to speak out and is willing to “name names” to the police. Mr Adams was arrested last week when he presented himself at the police facility, knowing that detectives were carrying out wide-ranging inquiries in the McConville murder.
She told the Guardian: “If full co-operation into the murder of my mother includes naming those who I saw bursting into our flat, who dragged my mother away from us at gunpoint, and who were directly involved in her disappearance and murder, then yes – I would be prepared to name names.” On Friday a judge approved a police request to hold the republican for an extra 48 hours for further questioning.
Sinn Fein claimed the arrest was part of a campaign by “an embittered rump of police officers” to settle old scores. Some republican statements were taken as a threat to reconsider the party’s support for policing. The party denied it had made any such threats but said there was “a growing anger with every hour” that Mr Adams was held.
Meanwhile, Mrs McConville’s son Michael said the family’s fight for justice would continue.
“The McConville family is going to stay to the bitter end until we get justice,” he said.
Speaking before the release took place, Democratic Unionist party leader and First Minister Peter Robinson said threats to reassess attitudes to policing was “a despicable, thuggish attempt to blackmail the police.”