INLA arms disposal statements due

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Confirmation that the Irish National Liberation Army has disposed of its weapons is due to be announced later.

General John de Chastelain, head of the international decommissioning body (IIDC), and the INLA are expected to issue statements on the arms move.

The statements come one day before the expiry of legislation that enables the commission to carry out its work.

The INLA, whose murder victims included Tory MP Airey Neave, disposed of its arsenal in recent weeks.

A small, ruthless group which killed more than 120 people, it announced in October that it intended to pursue its aims by exclusively peaceful means.

The republican paramilitary body is believed to have been responsible for 111 murders from its formation in 1975 until its ceasefire in 1998, but it is also thought to have been involved in a number of murders since then.

Bomb

In February 2009, the INLA claimed responsibility for the murder of a drug dealer in Londonderry.

It came to world prominence in 1979 with the murder of Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman Airey Neave by leaving a bomb under his car in the House of Commons car park.

It was behind one of Northern Ireland's worst atrocities when it killed 17 people in a bomb attack on the Droppin' Well pub in Ballykelly, County Londonderry, in 1982.

The group's political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party held a parade in Bray, County Wicklow, four months ago where it announced that the organisation had renounced violence.

At the moment, paramilitaries moving weapons can use a certificate from the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) saying they are moving arms from one cache to another to facilitate decommissioning.

However, the legislation that allows the IICD to operate expires on Tuesday and any weapons found after that date can be forensically tested.

Evidence from this could be used in future court cases and possibly help secure convictions.