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Peter Robinson: con arresto di Sean Kelly, processo di pace in bilico

Talks on punishment attack sought

Sean Kelly
Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson is seeking talks with PSNI chief constable Matt Baggott to discuss the arrest of a former IRA bomber being questioned about a so-called punishment shooting in Belfast on Tuesday.

Sean Kelly (39), once jailed for life for an attack which left 10 people dead, was arrested yesterday at his home in the republican Ardoyne area close to where an 18-year-old was wounded three times in the leg.

The victim has had emergency hospital treatment but his condition is described as stable.

Mr Robinson said today: “The family of the man who has been shot has indicated the involvement of those associated with Sinn Féin in this attack.

“This connection raises potentially grave consequences for the [peace] process and we will want to meet with the chief constable to establish the background of this case and how the police are able to conclude that it is not paramilitary linked.

“We will be monitoring very closely the facts of this case as they arise, and the Sinn Féin response to them.”

Kelly received nine life sentences for an attack on Frizzell’s fish shop in the loyalist Shankill Road area in 1993. A second IRA man who was with him was among those killed when a 5lb bomb exploded prematurely.

Loyalist paramilitary leaders who had been expected to hold a meeting in a room above the shop were the intended target.

Kelly, from the neighbouring Ardoyne, was pulled from the rubble of the collapsed building. He lost an eye and the power of his left arm. There were 60 other survivors.

He was jailed for life two years later, but as part of the 1998 Belfast Agreement he was freed with hundreds of other loyalist and republican prisoners.

He became an immediate hate figure among loyalists, especially in Belfast, and Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers will almost certainly ask to be kept fully informed of the police investigation into Tuesday night’s shooting.

The Secretary of State has the power to consider his early release licence.

Kelly was sent back to jail in 2005 when his licence was revoked by then Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain amid allegations the top republican had become reinvolved in terrorism. He was held for a month at the top security Maghaberry Prison.

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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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