Police arrest man in connection with Kevin McGuigan murder
Police in the North have arrested a 41-year-old man in connection with the murder of Kevin McGuigan.
Police believe the killing of Kevin McGuigan (pictured) in East Belfast was a revenge attack by republican associates of former Provisionals commander Gerard “Jock” Davison, who was gunned down in May.
The revelations have created a political crisis at Stormont and prompted Democratic Unionist calls for David Cameron to intervene to suspend the devolved Assembly in Belfast and order renewed negotiations, as well as some form of independent monitoring of the IRA ceasefire.
PSNI chief inspector John McVea said: “Detectives from Serious Crime Branch, investigating the murder of Kevin McGuigan, have arrested a 41-year-old man in East Belfast this morning, Wednesday 2 September.
“The suspect has been taken to the Serious Crime Suite at Antrim Police Station for questioning.”
This is the 12th arrest in the investigation. Chief Constable George Hamilton has said the Provisional IRA still exists and some members were involved in the murder of the father-of-nine last month.
The revelations have shaken the political establishment in the North, following Sinn Féin assurances that the IRA had gone away and the assessment of a 2008 British and Irish Government-appointed Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) report which declared that the IRA had disbanded its terrorist structures and relinquished the leadership necessary to wage war.
