A senior Orangeman involved in organising the Whiterock parade which ended in riots and sparked days of street violence in north Belfast last month has been suspended from his job at the Northern Ireland Assembly, it was revealed tonight.
Billy Mawhinney, who is Orange District Master in the Shankill area of Belfast, was suspended earlier today.
Earlier in the week he appeared on a BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlightcurrent affairs programme focusing on the Whiterock Orange Parade.
It is believed the suspension was because of his comments on the programme.
Ulster Unionist Party assembly member Michael Copeland, who has known Mr Mawhinney for years, condemned the decision.
He said Mr Mawhinney, a senior doorkeeper a Parliament Buildings, Stormont, was staying publicly silent after he had been advised by his lawyers not to comment on his suspension.
But he said he could not understand why it had taken place. "Billy would never say a bad word about anybody."
Mr Copeland added: "He may have unwittingly contravened some aspect of his contract by going on the programme, but his suspension is wrong."
He said Mr Mawhinney had been one of those involved in negotiations involving the Whiterock parade and had been surprised when the Parades Commission made the decision at the last minute not to allow the controversial parade to march along a short stretch of the nationalist Springfield Road.
Mr Copeland said what had happened to him would not go down well with the people in Mr Mawhinney's community.
An assembly spokesman confirmed an official had been suspended but would give not further detail.
PA