Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams Likely Won’t be Charged

Gerry Adams, a leader of Irish political group Sinn Fein, was released on Sunday, according to multiple media reports. Experts say that he is unlikely to be charged with any crime.

Adams’ police evidence file of his time with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was delivered to the British state prosecutor, but experts say the Sinn Fein leader’s chances of being charged are slim.

On Sunday, Adams, a well-known Catholic politician, was released after being held for four days by police in connection to a 1972 abduction and murder of a mother of 10, Jean McConville, at the hands of the IRA. Sinn Fein is an influential Irish republican party that was founded in 1905. It was at one time believed that the IRA was the armed wing of Sinn Fein.

Adams has always denied having any involvement in the death of McConville, who was abducted and killed. It has long been held that she was murdered by the IRA for being a spy for the British army.

Just before Adams was released from police custody, another senior Sinn Fein figure told the Irish Times that the politician was “worried about the damage [his arrest] may be doing to the image of policing” and the fragile peace process.

In interviews with the media after Adams was arrested, North Belfast Assembly member Gerry Kelly told reporters that the situation was “serious.”

“He is the leader of Sinn Fein,” said Kelly, according to CNN. “He is being questioned about things that happened over 40 years ago. Let me say this very clearly: The McConville family and the suffering that they have gone through is not going to be assisted by another injustice which is being perpetrated now.”

Kelly also said that the position of Sinn Fein on policing will be assessed “as time goes on.”

“We are in policing because we believe in the new dispensation in policing,” said Kelly. “If there is policing that we see as wrong then we will speak out against that.”

Another political leader, Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness, last week described Adams’ arrest as unnecessary, unjustified and politically motivated. He called the Sinn Fein leader’s arrest part of the “dark side” of Northern Ireland policing.

McGuinness described the arrest and five-day detention as a “deliberate attempt to influence the elections that are due to take place in three weeks’ time.”

Several others aside from the Sinn Fein leader have been arrested and questioned in the McConville investigation.