DUBLIN (AP) – Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams has rejected an ex-member’s accusation that Adams authorized the 2006 Irish Republican Army killing of a high-profile informant.
The BBC’s Spotlight investigative program in Belfast broadcast an interview with the man making the allegation on Tuesday night but shielded his identity, citing fears the IRA might try to kill him, too.
The man, whom the BBC identified as a former member of the outlawed IRA and legal Sinn Fein who had passed intelligence tipoffs for years to British authorities, said Adams approved the 2006 killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson.
The BBC Spotlight documentary said senior IRA figures came under internal pressure to sanction Donaldson’s killing by IRA commanders in South Armagh, a border region where suspected turncoats frequently were taken to be interrogated, tortured and slain. The man said Adams had “the final say.”
Donaldson in December 2005 admitted he had secretly briefed police and British intelligence officers on IRA and Sinn Fein activities for two decades, an offense that traditionally merited the death penalty within IRA circles. But his public confession came just months after his dominant IRA faction, the Provisionals, had officially disarmed in support of peacemaking efforts.