Sinn Féin MLA denies Provisional IRA link in McGuigan murder

Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly last night said that there was no Provisional IRA involvement in the killing of Kevin McGuigan.

He made the comments as the DUP plans to hold talks with other Northern Ireland parties about the potential exclusion of Sinn Féin from the Assembly, after the PSNI said yesterday that members of the Provisional IRA may be involved in the death.

The 53-year-old father of nine was shot dead outside his home in the Short Strand area of east Belfast on August 12th and it has been suggested the shooting was a revenge attack after the killing of former IRA commander Jock Davison in May.

Mr McGuigan’s relatives have publicly accused the IRA but Sinn Féin has repeatedly rejected suggestions of IRA involvement.

Speaking last night in Belfast, Mr Kelly said “the killing needs to stop and it needs to stop now”.

First Minister Peter Robinson said last night his Democratic Unionist Party entered government with republicans on a commitment to exclusively peaceful and democratic means through support for the police, the courts and the rule of law as well as the dismantling of the structures of their terrorist organisation.

A DUP walkout would cause the collapse of the powersharing administration.

Mr Robinson said that “before the return of the Assembly from recess we will seek a further update from the chief constable to establish his conclusion regarding those responsible and the role of those in Republican movement who are associated with Sinn Féin”.

Exclusion motion

“To ensure that dealing with this issue is pursued in a manner which attracts the widest possible consensus we will have discussions with other parties about tabling the necessary exclusion motion in the Assembly and asking the Secretary of State to intervene in circumstances where the evidence points to the IRA being involved.”

So far in the investigation, one man has appeared in court on a firearms charge, a number of firearms have been recovered and eight arrests have been made so far .

Detective Superintendent Kevin Geddes said yesterday that "a main line of inquiry in this investigation is that Kevin McGuigan was murdered by individuals seeking revenge for the murder of Jock Davison in May."

“Part of this main line of inquiry is that a group which calls itself Action Against Drugs (AAD) was closely involved in the killing.

“Our assessment is that AAD is an independent group which is not part of the Provisional IRA. But it is also our assessment that some members and associates of AAD are, or were, members of the Provisional IRA.

“One of our major lines of inquiry is that members of the Provisional IRA were involved in this murder.”

Publicly accused

However, Mr Kelly said last night: “I noticed that in the statements from the police that they pointed toward a group called Action Against Drugs as possibly being involved in this.

“If that is true, let me repeat again what I have put out myself before, that this is a criminal gang, that it has been involved in north Belfast and other places of everything from extortion to murder already and if they are involved they need to be brought to justice as well.

“They are a criminal gang and there is no equivocation about that whatsoever. They are not republicans. There are no republicans involved in these killings.”

Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt MLA said that the PSNI cannot leave their assessment hanging without further details.

“The potential that members of a terrorist organisation that we had been told had decommissioned its weapons and wasn’t even supposed to be in existence could still be orchestrating murder on our streets is a very serious development,” he said.

“Every politician at Stormont has signed up to going forward through purely political, non-violent means . . .”

Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister said "pro-agreement unionism must face up to the uncomfortable reality that they partner a party in government which not only justifies the actions of the IRA in the past but whose IRA clearly still reserves the right to act as judge, jury and executioner".