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Sinn Fein man to appear in court
BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Sinn Fein's head of administration, Denis Donaldson, will appear in court on Monday following an unprecedented raid on party offices at Stormont. The 52-year-old was one of four people arrested during raids by police on Friday as part of an investigation into alleged Irish Republican Army intelligence gathering. He is due to appear before Belfast Magistrates Court on Monday to face five charges alleging possession of information which was likely to be of use to terrorists, a spokesman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland told The Press Association. The three other people are still being questioned, with security sources predicting more suspects will be charged. The allegations against republicans have dramatically soured relationships between key players in the Northern Ireland peace process, with the province's power sharing institutions teetering on the brink of collapse. David Trimble's Ulster Unionists, who will meet UK Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday, have warned the government that if it does not move to expel Sinn Fein ministers, they will ensure there will be no executive featuring republicans. Blair has summoned Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to Downing Street this week to explain the arrests and raids on republican homes in north and west Belfast. The development came after Irish republicans held low-key demonstrations on Saturday to protest the raids on Sinn Fein's Stormont office. (Full story) Documents and computer discs were taken away for examination after the raids, which followed a year-long undercover operation on secret IRA intelligence gathering in Belfast. Sinn Fein -- widely regarded as being the political wing of the IRA, a charge the party denies -- said it held the protests to demonstrate against the "anti-democracy and anti-Sinn Fein agenda". It claimed the raids were "politically inspired" police action. But Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid said on Sunday republicans must give an assurance that they will abandon all paramilitary activity in a bid to save the peace process He told the BBC: "The IRA have never been prepared to say the war is over or that their army is being stood down. "We have come a huge way in terms of the cease-fire. There have been no attacks on the police or the (British) Army, no planting of bombs, but the constant drip feed of allegations that the maintenance of the apparatus of terror is being carried on is undermining hugely the confidence in this (Good Friday) Agreement." All sides in Belfast have admitted Friday's operation has left the peace process in its deepest crisis yet amid fears that the fallout has the potential to wreck the Good Friday Agreement. The IRA has already been blamed for the theft of Special Branch files in Belfast last March while three suspected IRA members in Colombia are facing accusations of training FARC guerrillas. Friday's raids came on the same day three men accused of being members of the IRA went on trial in Colombia for allegedly taking part in the training of rebels. (Full story)
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