Updated

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams remains in police custody as detectives question him over his alleged role in the Irish Republican Army killing of a Belfast mother of 10 in 1972.

Senior politicians in Adams' Irish nationalist party said Thursday they hoped he would be released soon without charge. Under Northern Ireland's anti-terrorist law he can be held for two days, then police must release or charge him or seek a judicial extension to his custody.

The 65-year-old Adams denies any role in the outlawed IRA. Former members who spoke on tape to a Boston College-commissioned research project have linked him to the abduction, slaying and secret burial of Jean McConville, a 38-year-old widow whom the IRA branded a British spy. An official 2006 investigation dismissed this claim.