Sinn Fein chief Adams questioned for 2nd day over 1972 IRA abduction, killing of Belfast woman
Published December 11, 2015
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FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2013 file photo, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams speaks to the media at Stormont Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland police say they have arrested Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams on suspicion of involvement in the Irish Republican Army's 1972 abduction, killing and secret burial of a Belfast widow. Adams confirmed his own arrest Wednesday in a prepared statement and described it as a voluntary, prearranged interview. Police had been expected to question the 65-year-old Adams about the 1972 killing of Jean McConville, whom the IRA executed as an alleged spy. The IRA did not admit the killing until 1998. Adams was implicated in the killing by two IRA veterans who gave taped interviews to researchers for a Boston College research project. The Northern Ireland police took legal steps to acquire the interviews, parts of which have already been published after one IRA interviewee died. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, file) (The Associated Press)
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FILE- In this Monday, May 31, 1999 file photo, Helen McHendry and husband Seamus find the agonizing wait for the recovery of Helen's mother all too much as Irish police continue to search for the body of her mother, Jean Mc Conville, in Dundalk, Irish Republic. Police in Northern Ireland arrested Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams on Wednesday over his alleged involvement in the Irish Republican Army's 1972 abduction, killing and secret burial of a Belfast widow. Adams, 65, confirmed his own arrest in a prepared statement and described it as a voluntary, prearranged interview. Police long had been expected to question Adams about the killing of Jean McConville, a 38-year-old mother of 10 whom the IRA killed with a single gunshot to the head as an alleged spy. According to all authoritative histories of the Sinn Fein-IRA movement, Adams served as an IRA commander for decades, but he has always denied holding any position in the outlawed group. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, file) (The Associated Press)
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FILE - In this Tuesday Feb. 19, 2008 file photo, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, right, carries the coffin of senior IRA commander Brendan Hughes, in west Belfast, Northern Ireland. Police in Northern Ireland arrested Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams on Wednesday over his alleged involvement in the Irish Republican Army's 1972 abduction, killing and secret burial of a Belfast widow. Adams, 65, confirmed his own arrest in a prepared statement and described it as a voluntary, prearranged interview. Police long had been expected to question Adams about the killing of Jean McConville, a 38-year-old mother of 10 whom the IRA killed with a single gunshot to the head as an alleged spy. Adams was implicated in the killing by two IRA veterans, who gave taped interviews to researchers for a Boston College history archive on the four-decade Northern Ireland conflict. Belfast police waged a two-year legal fight in the United States to acquire the interviews, parts of which already were published after the 2008 death of one IRA interviewee, Brendan Hughes. Boston College immediately handed over the Hughes tapes. The college and researchers fought unsuccessfully to avoid handover tapes of the second IRA interviewee, Dolours Price, who died last year. Both Hughes and Price agreed to be interviewed on condition that their contents were kept confidential until their deaths. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, file) (The Associated Press)
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.
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https://www.foxnews.com/world/sinn-fein-chief-adams-questioned-for-2nd-day-over-1972-ira-abduction-killing-of-belfast-woman