Belfast experts: Adams unlikely to face IRA charge
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — A police evidence file documenting Gerry Adams' Irish Republican Army career has been delivered to British state prosecutors in Belfast, but experts say the chances of the Sinn Fein leader being charged are slim on both legal and political grounds.
Adams walked free Sunday after five days of police interrogation and declared his innocence in the unsolved 1972 abduction, slaying and secret burial of a Belfast mother of 10, Jean McConville.
Adams says he chiefly was questioned about the audiotaped claims of IRA veterans, who identified him as the Belfast IRA commander at the time responsible for ordering McConville's disappearance.
Northern Ireland's Public Prosecution Service now must make the final call on whether police have collected enough evidence to charge the 65-year-old Adams with membership in an outlawed group.
