The family of a man who said this week that he had acted as an INLA informer for 12 years has accused the RUC of detaining him in custody against his will.
Mr John Bowen (29), a father of three from the nationalist Short Strand in east Belfast, was last in contact with his family on Wednesday, around the time he told a press conference that while a member of the INLA he had been an RUC agent.
Mr Paul Little of the INLA's political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), accused the RUC of "kidnapping" Mr Bowen. His wife, Angela, also claimed that the RUC had unlawfully detained him.
Mr Little claimed that Mr Bowen had been recently asked by his RUC handlers to influence the INLA into murdering a small-time drugs dealer on the Ormeau Road, so that the INLA would be in breach of its ceasefire.
The RUC would not say yesterday if it knew Mr Bowen's whereabouts.
On Wednesday, Mr Bowen, in the company of a priest and reading from a prepared statement, said that he had given the RUC information about INLA weapons for the past 12 years, and had "compromised their operations".
He said he was going public on the matter "of his own free will", and to get the RUC "off my back".
The INLA, it is understood, believes that Mr Bowen is back with his "handlers", although the RUC would not confirm this.
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