Prosecutors drop main charges against ‘spy ring’ suspects

Prosecutors in the North have dropped their main charges against two Belfast republicans accused of involvement in an alleged IRA “spy ring” at Stormont.

Sinn Féin’s head of administration, Denis Donaldson, and his son-in-law, Ciaran Kearney, were originally charged with possessing documents of a secret, confidential or restricted nature that originated in government offices.

However, those charges have now been dropped.

Mr Donaldson and Mr Kearney are still expected to face lesser charges.

The pair were arrested after highly publicised PSNI raids on republican homes in Belfast and on Sinn Féin’s offices in Stormont.

The PSNI subsequently claimed to have uncovered an IRA “spy ring” in Stormont, a move that caused the collapse of the North’s political institutions and the re-imposition of direct rule from London.