Police in the North have released three people arrested yesterday in the investigation into a raid on Special Branch offices.
Police had searched premises in Belfast and Derry hoping to find evidence linking republicans to the break-in at the top-security police station in Castlereagh, east Belfast.
Two men were arrested in Derry yesterday morning. According to republican sources, both men are prominent republican figures, including an ex-IRA prisoner in the Maze jail near Lisburn, Co Antrim.
They said he was one of the leading hunger strike protesters when republican prisoners sought political status in 1980.
Another man was detained in Belfast later that afternoon.
All three were released without charge.
The arrests came days after detectives seized six people in the two cities as part of their inquiries into the burglary last month when highly sensitive files on Special Branch informers and their police handlers were stolen.
Five of those were released without charge, and the sixth has been accused of having information useful to terrorists. This material did not relate to the files stolen from Castlereagh.
PA