The Ulster Unionist Party’s Upper Bann MLA, Doug Beattie MC, has called on Gerry Adams to take legal action against the BBC if claims made in last night’s Spotlight programme that he sanctioned the killing of Denis Donaldson in 2005 are untrue.
Doug Beattie, who is also his Party’s Justice spokesperson said:
“If the allegations made against Gerry Adams are not true, then he should take legal action against BBC Spotlight and if not, he needs to explain why not. All we have heard so far is a weak denial.
“If any other political leader on these islands was accused of the allegations made against Adams, they would have had to resign or at the very least stand aside. However, it seems that Sinn Fein leaders have no shame. From Martin McGuinness exercising Royal Prerogatives to Gerry Adams` silence on his brother`s child sexual abuse when he was first told of it, what little credibility the Sinn Fein leadership had is dwindling away.
“The programme made two key claims. Firstly, that the IRA sanctioned the murder and then under pressure from Thomas (Slab) Murphy, Sinn Fein sanctioned the murder. A pertinent question is therefore, was the murder given political sanction to satisfy the ‘good republican’ Slab Murphy? These are very serious allegations indeed.
“I welcome the fact that the intelligence services so heavily infiltrated the leadership of Sinn Fein and as was made clear in last night`s BBC Spotlight programme, ‘agents of influence’ led to the strategic defeat of the Provisional IRA.”