Sinn Fein has strongly criticised the RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, over the collapse of a Belfast murder case. Last February Mr Flanagan linked the arrest of three men to the murder of a prominent loyalist, saying there was an IRA connection. This statement led to Sinn Fein being excluded from the multiparty peace talks, then being held in Dublin Castle, and put the peace process under strain.
The three men were freed yesterday after charges against them were withdrawn when they appeared in court in Belfast. Mr Samuel Baker (26), Mr Sean Valente (25) and Mr William Grove (25) had been held in custody after Mr Robert Dougan was shot dead in south Belfast in February. A number of people from the republican Twinbrook area of west Belfast were arrested at the time in connection with Mr Dougan's murder and questioned at Castlereagh interrogation centre in Belfast.
An RUC spokesman said last night that the police had no comment to make on the withdrawal of the charges.
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said the court's decision showed that the RUC had not had "a shred of evidence to sustain the charges against three innocent men".
Sinn Fein was excluded from the peace talks from February 21st to March 9th after Mr Flanagan issued a statement linking the Provisional IRA to the murders of Mr Dougan and Mr Brendan Campbell, an alleged drug-dealer. Sinn Fein took legal action in the Dublin courts in an attempt to overturn the decision to exclude the party. When this failed, a series of street protests were held throughout the North.
Mr McLaughlin said: "RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan used the arrest of these three men as a basis for advising Mo Mowlam that the IRA was responsible for this shooting. Ms Mowlam then used this advice as justification for ejecting Sinn Fein from the multi-party talks.
"The decision taken in the court today shows that the RUC didn't have a shred of evidence to sustain the charges against these three innocent men, let alone affect the progress of the peace talks with unsubstantiated allegations."
Mr McLaughlin called on Mr Flanagan to explain the reason for "laying these unfounded charges and the ill-informed advice given to Mo Mowlam, which could have had dire consequences for the peace process".
The Northern Secretary presented a confidential "speaking note" to parties at the talks, which were being held in Dublin at the time, stating that the British government concurred with the RUC Chief Constable that the Provisional IRA was responsible for the killings.
The Chief Constable's "firm view", she noted, was based on intelligence information available to him and on evidence obtained in the course of the RUC's investigation of the two crimes. She insisted that nobody wanted to negotiate "with a gun at their head" and said the talks process was only open to those who were committed to the principles of peace and democracy.
Speaking at the time, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, claimed that the RUC was "managing the media" by telling journalists off the record that men questioned about the murder of Mr Dougan were IRA suspects.
No organisation admitted responsibility for Mr Dougan's murder, and the IRA, shortly before the expulsion, released a statement saying that its ceasefire was intact.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, now First Minister of the Northern Assembly, supported the decision to expel Sinn Fein. He said at the time that the IRA was probably directly or indirectly responsible for the killing of Mr Dougan and Mr Campbell.
Mr Trimble said he believed Mr Flanagan could establish this and, as a result, Sinn Fein would be forced from the talks because it would then be in breach of the Mitchell Principles of democracy and non-violence.
In Dublin yesterday the Government had no comment to offer on the decision by the RUC not to press charges against the three men in connection with the murder of Mr Dougan.