Witnesses to the murder of Belfast man Robert McCartney are still too terrified to testify, it was claimed tonight.
The family of the murdered father of two made the claim tonight in response to yesterday's IRA statement, which said they had offered to shoot those involved in his killing.
Detectives spent the day questioning one of three IRA men expelled over the killing. But after rejecting the Provisionals' offer to shoot the men who battered and stabbed the father-of-two to death, the McCartney family piled new pressure on the organisation.
The McCartney family said it was only in court that "justice would be done".
Well over a month after the killing, Mr McCartney's five sisters and fiancee claimed no one has come forward with the evidence police desperately need. In a statement read by Claire McCartney, they said: "This must be due to ongoing intimidation and fear.
"Until they do, we will continue to campaign for justice for Robert." The IRA provoked outrage and astonishment in Belfast, London and Dublin with the brutal form of street justice it offered. The British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern were both stunned by its chilling bluntness.
Mr Ahern, whose relationship with the Sinn Fein leadership is at an all-time low because of relentless allegations of IRA crime, admitted he was so shocked he had to re-read the statement.
"Sometimes you hear these things and it's hearsay, but then you actually see it in a written form," he said. "We all want to see justice to be done, but their response (the IRA's) to that was to eliminate three or four people. It's horrific."
With Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde stressing the terrorists intended to kill, the McCartney family turned down the offer during a five-and-a-half hour meeting on Monday. The sisters, who are preparing to meet President Bush at the White House on St Patrick's Day as part of their campaign, insisted only the courts could provide the justice they have demanded.
Along with three men who carried out the January 30th killing near a city centre bar, 12 others were involved in a cover-up operation, they claimed. Turning to their encounter with the Provisionals, the sisters also confirmed: "At the meeting (Robert's partner) Bridgeen (Hagans) asked the IRA representative a question that has been haunting her and the family for five weeks: why did they kill Robert? They responded openly and directly that 'there was no reason'."
In another remarkable twist, one of those ordered to quit the IRA has handed himself in to police. The suspect went into a Belfast police station with his solicitor after contact was made with investigating officers.
He was later transferred to a serious crime holding centre in Antrim, 15 miles away.
