SF member questioned over Claudy bombing

A SINN FÉIN Assembly member was being questioned by detectives last night about one of the worst IRA atrocities during the Troubles.

East Derry MLA Francie Brolly was among three men and a woman being interrogated about a no warning triple car bomb attack which killed nine people in the Co Derry village of Claudy 33 years ago.

Mr Brolly’s home in Dungiven was raided by police in the early hours of the morning and freelance sports journalist Seamus Mullan was also arrested.

A 58-year-old woman from Dungannon in Co Tyrone and a 50 year-old man in Portglenone, Co Antrim were also being questioned.

The arrests were part of a fresh police investigation launched three years ago into allegations that a Catholic priest Fr James Chesney was involved in the attack.

No one has ever been charged in connection with the bombings and even if a suspect was, under controversial new legislation, he or she could avoid jail by qualifying for release under a special licence.

Senior Sinn Féin figures accused the Police Service of Northern Ireland of carrying out politically motivated arrests.

At the launch in Dublin of a new recruitment drive for his party, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams demanded Mr Brolly’s immediate release.

“The man should be released forthwith,” the West Belfast MP said.

“In terms of all the progress made across the remit of the Good Friday Agreement, there still remains within the PSNI, that hardcore of old Special Branch people who have a grudge and are anti this peace process.”