A Northern Ireland journalist was arrested today as police widened an investigation into how transcripts of bugged telephone conversations wound up in print, security sources said.
Mr Liam Clarke, Northern Ireland editor for the
Sunday Times
of London, and his wife, Ms Kathryn Johnston, were held for questioning, the sources said.
Police, while declining to release names, said they had arrested a man and his wife in connection with an investigation of leaked transcripts of the calls made by Sinn Féin's Mr Martin McGuinness, while he served as Northern Ireland's education minister.
The institutions were suspended last October after the discovery of an alleged spy ring operated by the IRA, inside Stormont.
Mr McGuinness has denounced the bugging of his phone, which he blamed on British intelligence services. "It is particularly disgraceful that this is happening at a time when people are trying to build a peace process," Mr McGuinness said yesterday.
The calls, purportedly taped by MI5, are to be published in a new edition of a biography of Mr McGuinness written by Mr Clarke and were reported in newspapers in London and Belfast earlier this week.
In addition to Mr Clarke and his wife, police also have detained a 48-year-old former policeman in connection with their investigation.
PA