Sinn Fein offices raided in 'anti-terrorism' operation

Sinn Fein's assembly offices in Stormont have been raided this morning and the head of their Stormont administration team has been arrested following a police operation.

The police have said that the raids, which involved up to 200 officers and began at 5am, form part of investigations into republican terrorist activity and intelligence gathering.

Police were reported to have taken two computer discs from the assembly office, whilst a number of homes in north Belfast were also raided.

It is now known that two men have been arrested in the operation. Denis Donaldson, head of the party's administration team at the assembly was arrested at his home this morning. Mr Donaldson had previously stood for Sinn Fein in East Belfast for the 1983 parliamentary election. A second man, who is believed to have held a junior position in the Northern Ireland Office, was also arrested.

Sinn Fein's policing spokesman, and North Belfast assembly member, Gerry Kelly accused the police of being "politically motivated".

The republican party have reacted angrily to the operation and made their protests known to the British government through the office of party president Gerry Adams.

In an interview Gerry Kelly said: "In the wake of David Trimble talking about pulling down the institutions now we have the PSNI acting very politically to support that.

"This is the office of a political party that signed up to the Good Friday Agreement, that sits in this assembly building and they sent in the PSNI to raid this building. They should not have been allowed in and if John Reid is behind it he should come out and explain it."

He went on to say that the PSNI had "done nothing" to halt loyalist paramilitary violence in north Belfast.

Sinn Fein Health Minister Bairbre de Brun said: "This is a politically inspired ricochet into the highly volatile situation.

"This is a force that could not protect Catholics all summer, that when people were asking why there were petrol bomb attacks and why there were people were being attacked in their homes and Catholics were being killed, they [the PSNI] said they were short staffed. Yet they do this.

She added: "This is anti-change, anti-peace process and anti-democracy."

Unionist reaction varied from UUP leader David Trimble's description of the events as having "grave implications for the peace process," to party colleague Jeffrey Donaldon's view that the operation "represented the final nail in the coffin of Sinn Fein's participation in the executive".

DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson said that police raid "drove a horse and coaches through Sinn Fein's protestations that they operate by exclusively peaceful means".

(GMcG)