Bobby Storey released after questioning in McGuigan murder inquiry
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Version 0 of 1. Sinn Féin’s northern chairman Bobby Storey has been released by detectives investigating the killing of Kevin McGuigan by suspected members of the IRA, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said. He was one of three leading republicans questioned about the shooting of the former IRA member in Belfast last month. The disclosure that IRA members are believed to be behind the death has rocked Northern Ireland’s political institutions, with the first minister, Peter Robinson, resigning on Thursday. Storey’s solicitor John Finucane tweeted: “After 2 days in Antrim my client Bobby Storey has been freed. No evidence was put at any stage & my client will be suing for unlawful arrest.” Senior officers have said McGuigan’s murder was not sanctioned by the IRA leadership, but one major line of inquiry is that members of the Provisional IRA were involved. It is alleged to have been carried out in retaliation for the murder of another former IRA prisoner, Gerard “Jock” Davison, at his home in the Markets area of Belfast in May. Storey was one of three men who were arrested in Belfast on Wednesday morning as part of the police investigation. He is also a former IRA prisoner. The other two, Eddie Copeland and Brian Gillen, are well-known republicans and have also now been released. The leader of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, welcomed Storey’s release. “The unconditional release of Bobby Storey underlines the contrived nature of the current crisis in the political institutions in the North,” he said. “I want to reiterate my grave concern about the nature in which the murder of two men has been exploited and also at the way the current difficulties have developed in the last few weeks, including the arrest of Bobby Storey.” Seventeen people have now been arrested in connection with the murder but so far no one has been charged. |