TUV presses Justice Minister for fresh Northern Bank investigation
17 December 2010
Following the revelations during the week from Wikileaks, implicating the Sinn Fein leaders in the Northern Bank robbery, TUV Leader Jim Allister QC has written to the Justice Minister pressing for a fresh investigation and challenging him to demonstrate that political considerations will not hamper or restrain the pursuit of justice.
Commenting Jim Allister said, “Anywhere else in the world, allegations that the holder of the highest office in government had knowledge of a bank robbery would rock government to its core and the local parliament would be alight with demands for action. Yet, here, such revelations can unfold and there was not a single MLA exercised enough to table even an emergency question to the Justice Minister. Such is the extent to which Stormont has become anesthetised to terrorists in government.
“While that will change next May when TUV arrives in Stormont, meantime it is left to me from the outside to raise the issue with the Justice Minister. Accordingly, I have written to him in the terms below.
Dear Minister,
This week we heard assurances of unprecedented co-operation between the PSNI and the Garda. But, we also discovered through Wikileaks, and the confirmation of Bertie Ahern, that the Republic’s authorities know and believe that both Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams had prior knowledge of the Northern Bank robbery. It also emerged that the Republic’s security services have information of a meeting between
Considering that withholding information and conspiracy are criminal offences and considering the law on accomplices, will you now review the adequacy of the inquiry into the Northern Bank robbery and ensure that fresh investigation is made in light of the information implicating your government partner, McGuinness, and Adams, and in light of the co-operation said to be available from the Garda?
I trust that the pursuit of justice will not be hampered or restrained by political considerations.
Yours sincerely,
