The Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, has denied he sanctioned the murder of a British spy inside the IRA.
Adams rejected allegations aired on BBC television on Tuesday night that he directly ordered the killing of Denis Donaldson at his remote cottage in the Irish Republic a decade ago.
Donaldson worked as a British agent while operating as a senior IRA member and Sinn Féin official in the Stormont parliament.
An informer named only as “Martin” told the BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight programme that Adams had ordered the Donaldson murder.
“I know from my experience in the IRA that murders have to be approved by the leadership, the political [and] military leadership of the IRA,” said “Martin”.
When pressed on who he was referring to, the self-confessed IRA informant said: “Gerry Adams, he gives the final say.”
In a statement released through his solicitor on Tuesday night, Adams lawyer said his client “had no involvement and had no knowledge whatsoever in Denis Donaldson’s killing”.
He categorically denies he was consulted on what he calls an alleged IRA army council decision or that he had any final say in the matter being sanctioned.
Following the Donaldson murder the Real IRA admitted killing the British agent at his cottage in County Donegal. But “Martin” in the programme claimed this was an opportunistic move by the republican dissidents to promote the idea they had murdered a top British agent.
“Martin” insisted the mainstream IRA killed Donaldson over his years of betrayal at the heart of the Irish republican movement.
Spotlight claimed the Provisional IRA’s South Armagh brigade rather than the Real IRA demanded Donaldson be killed in an act of revenge for his treachery.
It said the convicted tax fraudster Thomas “Slab” Murphy, the jailed reputed leader of the IRA in South Armagh, personally asked the republican leadership that Donaldson be killed.
Donaldson’s betrayal was a devastating blow for the mainstream republican movement as the former IRA prisoner was once part of Gerry Adams’ inner circle in Sinn Féin.
Among those the east Belfast republican served time with in the Maze prison was the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. He was exposed as an informer in 2005 and confessed publicly to working for Royal Ulster Constabulary special branch as well as other branches of the security forces for years.
Among his various roles for the IRA and Sinn Féin, Donaldson worked abroad forging relations with international militant groups including Palestinian factions and the Lebanese Hezbollah. At the time Donaldson was in the Middle East he was already working as a British spy.
Adams has consistently denied ever being in the IRA.
