LONDON
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has been released from custody on Sunday after being arrested in connection with the 1972 murder of Jean McConville in Northern Ireland.
Adams had been arrested Wednesday under the U.K.'s terrorism act after he went to a police station voluntarily to be questioned about the Irish Republican Army (IRA) murder of the 37-year-old mother of ten.
According to a statement from the Police Service of Northern Ireland a “65 year old man arrested by detectives investigating the abduction and murder of Jean McConville has been released pending report to Public Prosecution Service.”
Jean McConville was kidnapped in West Belfast and shot by the Irish Republican Army before being secretly buried in December, 1972.
The IRA later admitted they had killed her for being an alleged informer for the British security forces.
Her body was found in 2003 on a beach in County Louth, Ireland.
Having questioned Adams for two days the Police Service of Northern Ireland applied to a judge to allow them to hold him for a further 48 hours questioning, which was granted.
Adams has previously denied having any involvement in the murder and at a press conference Sunday after his release reiterated his innocence saying “I am innocent of any involvement or conspiracy,” adding that the murder of Jean McConville was a “grave injustice.”
Sinn Féin has said that the arrest of Adams is politically motivated as it has taken place during an election period and he is currently an elected representative for County Louth, Ireland.
Adams said that he was concerned about the timing of the arrest and claimed he had contacted the police two months ago believing that the “arrest could have been handled differently.”
The Sinn Féin leader at the press conference also claimed that the police took 33 taped interviews with him over the four days making much of his activities in the sixties and his civil rights views adding that he has never dissociated himself from the IRA and never will, but that “the IRA is gone and finished.”
The killing of McConville was one of the most notorious murders during 'the Troubles' between Irish nationalists and republicans, and British and Northern Irish police and security forces in Northern Ireland.
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