Relatives of the murdered former republican prisoner Kevin McGuigan have been told by police that three of their relations are under threat.
The claim, that police have informed them of the danger they face from members of the republican movement, comes as the five main political parties in Northern Ireland are due to meet in a effort to prevent the collapse of power sharing in the province.
McGuigan’s killing is central to the impasse between unionists, nationalists and republicans that threatens to derail devolution.
George Hamilton, the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, has said individual members of the Provisional IRA (PIRA) were responsible for killing McGuigan. He has stressed, however, that the PIRA leadership had not sanctioned the murder and that the organisation was no longer on a war footing.
Unionists say the existence of the PIRA in any shape or form, and the PSNI’s assessment that members of the organisation were behind the McGuigan murder last month is a breach of one of the agreements that led to power sharing.
The PIRA was meant to have demobilised and decommissioned most of it weaponry between 2005 tand 2007, when devolution was restored.
Speaking ahead of talks at Stormont, North Ireland’s deputy first minister and Sinn Féin’s chief negotiator during the peace process, Martin McGuiness, denied the PIRA was responsible for the murder in the Short Strand district of East Belfast in August.
“Our position is that the IRA are gone, that they represent no threat whatsoever,” he said. He acknowledged, however, that in parts of Derry and Belfast there were people “masquerading” as the IRA, which added confusion to allegations that the organisation still existed.
Irish republican dissident sources close to the New IRA have told the Guardian that armed groups opposed to the ceasefire were not involved in McGuigan’s killing.
On the BBC Spotlight investigative programme later on Tuesday, his family will allege that republicans are targeting three of its members . They and other former comrades of the former PIRA prisoner insist that the mainstream IRA was involved in the killing, a claim that Sinn Féin categorically denies.
In protest over the McGuigan murder and its implication for the agreements leading to power sharing, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) has refused to send its ministers to executive meetings at Stormont. This has effectively frozen the work of the four-party coalition cabinet.
The Ulster Unionist party (UUP) withdrew from the coalition last week in response to Hamilton’s assessment of the killing. The smaller of the two unionist parties, it now sits in now in opposition in the Stormont parliament.
On Tuesday evening the UUP leader, Mike Nesbitt, said he and his party would only attend the all-party talks when the agenda focusses on the allegations of continued PIRA activity, including the McGuigan killing. This represents a “partial walk-out” from the talks.
The all-party talks co-chaired by the Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, and the Irish foreign minister, Charles Flanagan, are expected to last for about four weeks.
