SDLP to complain at PSNI arrests

The SDLP has announced plans to make an official complaint about the PSNI’s handing of the arrest of two civil servants working for the Northern Ireland Police Fund.

The two men were arrested in connection with alleged IRA intelligence-gathering in the offices of the fund.

The PSNI subsequently told journalists that it feared the names and addresses of police officers who had applied for cash from the fund had been leaked to republicans.

However, the two detainees were later released without charge.

The SDLP’s Alex Atwood said he was concerned about the heavy-handed tactics of the police and the apparently scant nature of any evidence against the two men.

He said grave damage had been done to the pair’s good names and he encouraged them to make a complaint to the Police Ombudsman.