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Omicidio Robert McCartney: PSNI ferma comandante IRA di South Armagh

Police question IRA commander over Robert McCartney murder

51-year-old man nicknamed ‘The Surgeon’ is arrested near Irish border over 2005 killing outside Belfast pub

Magennis Bar, dove fu ucciso Robert McCartneyOne of the IRA’s most ruthless commanders, accused of organising dozens of killings in the Northern Ireland Troubles, is being questioned about the murder of the Belfast man Robert McCartney, it has emerged.

The 51-year-old man, nicknamed “The Surgeon”, was arrested near the Irish border on Wednesday in connection with one of the most controversial killings of the post-ceasefire era in Northern Ireland.

During the latter years of the Troubles he became the second in command to the IRA’s south Armagh leader Thomas “Slab” Murphy.

The south Armagh republican is still being quizzed over the IRA’s role in allegedly intimidating witnesses and hampering the police investigation into the 2005 murder outside a central Belfast pub. There is no suggestion he was present on the night of the killing but instead is being questioned by detectives over the IRA leadership’s role in an internal inquiry into the McCartney murder.

He was detained in the Jonesborough area of south Armagh on Wednesday in relation to the murder in 2005 of the Belfast father of two. He has been taken to the Antrim serious crimes suite for questioning.

The murder outside Magennis’s bar facing the law courts in Belfast provoked a crisis in the peace process after it emerged that local members of an IRA unit were involved in the killing and the forensic cover-up of the crime inside the pub afterwards. A number of eyewitnesses were also intimidated from co-operating with the police investigation.

McCartney, from the Short Strand district of the city, died after being beaten and stabbed near the bar. Sinn Féin was accused by McCartney’s sisters of obstructing justice and preventing eyewitnesses from speaking out.

The McCartney sisters launched a high-profile campaign to bring their brother’s killers to justice and won support from sympathisers including George W Bush and Ted Kennedy in the US.

The sisters also organised a high-profile campaign that took them from the streets of the working-class nationalist Short Strand to the White House, and to Sinn Féin’s annual conference in Dublin. McCartney’s sisters have alleged that mainstream republicans continue to dissuade people with direct information about the killers from naming names.

The IRA expelled three members over the murder and Sinn Féin subsequently suspended seven of its members. However, a number of other Sinn Féin members who were in the bar on the night of the murder have subsequently been promoted within the party, one of whom is a rising star in the organisation.

In 2008, Terence Davison, then 51, was acquitted of McCartney’s murder and two other men were cleared of charges connected to the killing.

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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