The Ulster Unionist Party’s Justice Spokesperson, Doug Beattie MC MLA, has called for an inquiry into Gerry Adams’ activities during the Troubles.    

Speaking after the UK Supreme Court overturned Gerry Adams’ convictions for attempting to escape for the Maze prison in the 1970s, Doug Beattie MC MLA said:

“The fact that Gerry Adams has had his conviction for attempting to escape from the Maze prison quashed due to a technicality is a product of a UK justice system which is fair, balanced, proportionate and even handed.  This of course is something that Mr Adams would know little about, given his sustained public support for an organisation that was the self appointed judge, jury and executioner of many innocent people, both here and abroad.

“No doubt Mr Adams will use this verdict, based as it is on a technicality, as an opportunity to squeeze more money out of the UK taxpayer, and I would urge the UK Government to resist this at every level. 

“I have previously called for an inquiry into the activities of Mr Adams over the period known as the Troubles, to establish the veracity of the persistent allegations that he was a very senior player within the Belfast Brigade of the IRA. Such an inquiry needs to focus on both him and Sinn Fein, and their relationship with the Provisional IRA in the past, present and future.

“It is time our government stopped appeasing the men and women who promoted violence and who have supported or engaged in the murder of our citizens throughout the UK. If a change in policy is not forthcoming, we are in very real danger of allowing a false narrative to be accepted, in which those who promoted and justified terrorism are rehabilitated as the good guys, whilst those stood between the terrorists and the terrorised are portrayed as the villains of the piece.”