Irish republicans are duty bound to support the McCartney family's demand for justice, writes Gerry Kelly
Following the murder of Robert McCartney Sinn Féin made very clear our determination to help the McCartney family. It is the family's wish to see those responsible brought before the courts.
We support them in this. Some people have been charged in relation to this murder and the criminal investigation is ongoing. Sinn Féin was not responsible for any of the events, including the murder of Robert McCartney, which are the subject of this investigation. And the party has clearly and unambiguously repudiated those who were responsible for Robert McCartney's murder.
The front-page article on Monday, 4th July, and a full page follow-through article in your Agenda section, purport to give an account of the Sinn Féin response to the killing of Robert McCartney in January.
Despite being provided with detailed information by Sinn Féin, much of which has been in the public realm for some time, this article is inaccurate in several key aspects and misrepresents some basic facts. I can only conclude that the motivation behind the article was to use this tragedy to attack Sinn Féin for political purposes.
For example, Peter Murtagh states as fact that a named individual was seen canvassing on behalf of several Sinn Féin candidates. This is not true. I challenge The Irish Times to substantiate this allegation. He also states as fact that members of Sinn Féin were involved in a forensic clean up of the bar. I challenge him to provide the information on which he bases this claim to the prosecuting authorities and allow them to act on it.
Contrary to Peter Murtagh's claims, it was the prison service which took the decision to place the men charged in relation to Robert McCartney's murder on the wing where they are now being held on remand. It had nothing to do with republicans.
Sinn Féin's position is clear, unambiguous and consistent. The party president has repeatedly called on everyone with information to make it available. We have worked hard on the ground to create the climate in which this can happen. Witnesses have come forward and made statements, some through their solicitors, some through the Police Ombudsman and some directly to the PSNI.
As we stated publicly last April, and to your newspaper more recently, at the time of the incident 12 members of Sinn Féin were in Maginnis' bar or its vicinity. The ardchomhairle followed party procedure to establish whether all those members had followed Gerry Adams's direction to make any information they had available. This was the sole purpose of our inquiries. It is for the PSNI to carry out a criminal investigation. Throughout this process all 12 were suspended, without prejudice.
Of those 12, four resigned and two were expelled for refusing to follow this instruction.
The remaining six have all made statements to the Police Ombudsman and are continuing to co-operate with her office. Five have had their suspensions lifted, as they have complied with Sinn Féin's direction on this matter. None of those five was among the seven party members whose names were given to us by the McCartney family last February. A decision on the sixth person will be made in due course.
Our lawyers have advised us not to release the names of any of these people publicly and we will not do anything that would jeopardise legal proceedings.
The family received the Sinn Féin position on the outcome of our party procedures before we issued a public statement, which was covered extensively in the media.
In relation to the questions given by the family to Sinn Féin on April 24th, Sinn Féin's response was given to the family at that time and our replies were made public.
During that time we also drew attention to the serious shortcomings in the PSNI investigation of this crime. It is telling that The Irish Times did not bother with even a cursory look at the role of the PSNI.
From the earliest stages of the investigation the PSNI was in a position to arrest and charge some of those involved but for political reasons refused to do so. In fact, at one point the PSNI refused to interview a key eyewitness who had offered to talk to detectives, and at another point a key suspect was turned away from a police station on the basis that none of the detectives involved in this high-profile case had the time to interview him. Additionally, it was repeatedly alleged that a "wall of silence" surrounded the killing of Robert McCartney and that this was the result of intimidation. Significantly, however, after the May elections the PSNI contradicted this claim when on June 2nd at a meeting of the Policing Board in Derry, Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kincaid publicly admitted that they had received a total of 151 witness statements. And again it was only after the elections that two people were eventually arrested and charged.
As a community that has suffered systematic injustice, Irish republicans are duty bound to support the McCartney family's demand for justice. Myself and Gerry Adams met the family again last week. We fully support the McCartney family and will continue to do so.
Gerry Kelly is a Sinn Féin MLA for North Belfast