Belfast experts: Adams unlikely to face IRA charge

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — A police evidence file documenting Gerry Adams' Irish Republican Army career has been delivered to British state prosecutors in Belfast, but experts say the chances of the Sinn Fein leader being charged are slim on both legal and political grounds.

Adams walked free Sunday after five days of police interrogation and declared his innocence in the unsolved 1972 abduction, slaying and secret burial of a Belfast mother of 10, Jean McConville.

Adams says he chiefly was questioned about the audiotaped claims of IRA veterans, who identified him as the Belfast IRA commander at the time responsible for ordering McConville's disappearance.

Northern Ireland's Public Prosecution Service now must make the final call on whether police have collected enough evidence to charge the 65-year-old Adams with membership in an outlawed group.



Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140505/eu-northern-ireland-adams-332c045066.html

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Author and IRA expert Ed Moloney talks to reporters at his home in New York, Thursday, May 1, 2014. Moloney, author of the definitive "A Secret History of the IRA," argues that the police investigation into Gerry Adams is designed not to bring justice but to claim the political scalp of Adams, who is Europe's longest-serving party leader. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

[Prophet 451]

1. If true, he should be in jail

But that's if it's true. A lot of people here (the UK) would like to see Adams jailed due to the long-standing presumption that the party he represents, Sinn Fein, had extensive ties to terrorists (the IRA). If his involvement in this crime can be proved, he should be in jail, regardless of his political ties. If not, he should be publicly exonerated. Perhaps naive but I trust the police and DPP to investigate fairly.

[riderinthestorm]

3. You are completely naive. nt

[Prophet 451]

6. Fair enough

You're hardly the first to say so.

[CountAllVotes]

7. +1,000

Ireland for the Irish!!!

[Nye Bevan]

10. If the Native Americans started a campaign of bombings and abductions,

to attempt to reclaim land that was theirs years ago, what would your reaction be?

[CountAllVotes]

11. Remember Alcatraz

They already tried more than once.

Remember Alcatraz!

[iandhr]

2. I am working in Boston right now.

This has made big news Adams is a fixture in many places.

[riderinthestorm]

4. He was brought in for questioning because of the Boston College project

The Boston College truth and reconciliation project that was supposed to guarantee participants the ability to tell their stories without prosecution or persecution are the ones who released the allegations to the police. Its badly damaged the credibility of the project and ensures that the true tale of who did what, and why, and where, and when, will never come out. Sucks.

[iandhr]

5. I know.

It was front page of the Boston Globe for a few days.

[H2O Man]

8. Good.

Gerry Adams fights the Good Fight.

[bobthedrummer]

9. A kick in the memory of Bobby Sands n/t

[Archae]

12. Adams knows who murdered that woman.

He may not be responsible.

But he knows who did it.

And he'd never do the right thing and expose the murderers.