A 54-year-old man yesterday became the first person to be sent to jail as a result of the Bloody Sunday killings in Derry 33 years ago.
Martin Doherty, who was granted anonymity by the inquiry and given the codename "Provisional IRA 9", was arrested at his home at Fanad Drive in the Creggan area of the city just before noon.
Doherty, a Republican, had been given a three-month sentence at the High Court in Belfast on January 7th for being in contempt of the inquiry after he refused to give evidence into the killings of 13 civilians and wounding of 13 others in the Bogside area of Derry on January 30th, 1972. The sentence was passed down in the absence of Doherty, and was put into effect when he was arrested yesterday.
Although 33 other witnesses to the 434-day-long inquiry came under the category of either paramilitary or former paramilitary, among them members of both the Provisional and Official IRA - including Sinn Féin's Mr Martin McGuinness, who was second in command of the Provisional IRA on Bloody Sunday - Doherty was the only paramilitary or former paramilitary witness to refuse to give evidence.
Outside the Guildhall in Derry yesterday, where the bulk of the inquiry's proceedings were held, about 50 people took part in a Sinn Féin-organised protest against Doherty's arrest.
Among those who took part in the protest were the Sinn Féin Mayor, Councillor Gerry O'Hara, several people who were wounded on Bloody Sunday, and relatives of the 13 victims.
Mr Michael McKinney, speaking on behalf of the victims' relatives, condemned the arrest.
"It is disgraceful that after everything that has occurred at this inquiry that the only person to be arrested and imprisoned to date will be a Derry man who clearly did not murder anyone on Bloody Sunday.
"It was not Martin Doherty who killed or wounded people then, but of those who were responsible, none has been arrested and none has been imprisoned for their actions that day. Martin Doherty has shown a lot less contempt for this inquiry than those who took the stand and refused to answer questions or told downright lies.
"Indeed, if the judicial system had pursued those responsible for Bloody Sunday as they have pursued Mr Doherty, we would not have witnessed the whitewash of Widgery or needed this second Bloody Sunday inquiry," he said.
Meanwhile, the inquiry announced yesterday that it is to reconvene in London later this month to hear evidence from a man known as Witness X.
He denies having told the RUC in 1972 that he was a member of the Provisional IRA, and that on Bloody Sunday he fired two magazines from a carbine rifle into Glenfada Park.
The inquiry will sit in the Royal Courts of Justice on January 27th to hear the evidence of Witness X. It will be given via a video link, and Witness X will be at another location.