Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness with Sinn Fein European election candidate Martina Anderson, SF Donegal North East TD Padraig Mac Lochlainn and Sadie O’Kane, from Dungiven.
Members of the RUC “old guard” in the PSNI were behind the arrest of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams in an attempt to influence the outcome of the upcoming European and local government elections, Deputy First Minister has said.
The Sinn MLA was speaking at the Derry launch of Martina Anderson’s European election campaign in the Waterfoot Hotel in the city tonight, at which Mr Adams was due to speak.
Mr Adams remains in custody in Antrim Police Station where he is being questioned by police about the 1972 murder of Jean McConville, one of the “Disappeared” who was abducted from her Belfast home and whose body was not recovered until 2003.
Speaking to over 300 party faithful, Mr McGuinness said the police could have arrested his party leader any time but deliberately chose yesterday.
Mr McGuinness added: “They certainly could have done it since they took possession of the so-called ‘Botston Tapes’ last year.
Martin McGuinness speaking at the launch of Martina Anderson’s European election campaign launch in the Waterfoot Hotel.
“Gerry Adams offered to meet the PSNI a month ago but the PSNI chose to wait until three weeks before the elections. It was they, and not Gerry Adams, who chose the time. They chose yesterday.”
Mr McGuinness added: “I am certainly not suggesting that all the PSNI leadership is involved in targeting Gerry Adams or Sinn Fein but there are clearly elements within the PSNI who remain wedded to the old and failed agenda of political policing,
“And I think that is not surprising in the context of our very fraught history and the particularly negative role performed by the old RUC as the arm of the Orange State through decades of political repression.
“Confronting political and partisan policing was, and remains, a key elemet of the peace process. It is one the many legacy issues which we continue to highlight.
“And these developements cannot be divorced from the wider political climate.
“Only three weeks ago, the British Secretary of State declared there was too much focus on the killings carried out by British forcers and, of course, there are clearly elements within the PSNI who share that view.
“I also accept that the PSNI are duty-bound to fully and energetically pursue all and every investigation and I support and encourage them to do so.
“But I know that some investigations are pursued much more vigorously than others.”
Mr McGuinness revealed he had spoken to British Prime Minister 90 minutes before attending the meeting.
He said: “Just before I came here, I had a telephone conversation the British Prime Minister David Cameron and in the course of the conversation I told him that the families in Belfast and in Derry who have lost loved ones at the hands of the Parachute Regiment, and the famiiles of the of those who were killed in the Dublin and Mongahan bombings, which the British Government are still witholding information on to this day, were testament to this reality.
“Only this week, the British Government told them there would be no review of those murders, no re-investigations, no arrests, no compassion for their loss and grief and certainly no politcal consistency from the British State
“British forces, in reality, are protected and immune. That is why the British Government has not signed up to the Haass proposals.
“There has been a lot of commentary on social media today about me using the term ‘the dark side of the PSNI.’
“Those are not my words. They are not the words of any Irish republican. So where did we get those words?
“We got those words from decent police officers who are very senior within the PSNI who are reformers within the PSNI and who wholeheartedly support the peace process.
“They were the people who told us there was a ‘dark side’ in the PSNI and that ‘dark side’ was the old guard of the RUC.
“That’s not an arguement for us turning against all of the transformation there has been in policing. That is a further encouragement that there is still more work to be done for us to ensure that we have policing service that is acting on behalf of the entire community.
“And that is what we in Sinn Fein have pledged to do. We are not ‘giver uppers.’ We will continue to bring about change.
“As for Gerry Adams, I am very proud that Gerry Adams is is my colleague and I am very proud that Gerry Adams is my party leader and I am also very proud Gerry Adams is my friend.
“He and I have worked very closely together over almost a quarter of a century trying to build this process that has transformed the politcal and security situation in the North.
“And if you were to ask me who was the single most important person in the last 25 years who has contributed to the peace that our people enjoy today, it has to be, head and shoulders above everbody else, the leader of our party, Gerry Adams.
“I view his arrest as a very deliberate attempt to influence the outcome of the elections north and south.
“I haven’t said anywhere today that any government organised this or any political party organised this.
“But I have said very, very clearly that there are certian people, the ‘dark side’ of PSNI, who have never been able to accept Sinn Fein in government, who have never been able to accept the peace process and who doing their damnest to inflience the outcome of the elections.”
Mr McGuinness concluded: “So they have flexed their muscles. They are the people responsible for the present situation. But I have great faith in the eletorate and great confidence the electorate will see it for what it is.”
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