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Gerry Adams denies sanctioning murder of British spy Denis Donaldson

Sinn Féin has rejected claims that Gerry Adams ordered the murder of an IRA spy. The informer told Spotlight that murders had to be approved by the political and military leadership of the IRA.

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He also told the BBC Mr Donaldson – revealed as an MI5 informer by Mr Adams in December 2005 – had unearthed a “spy ring” within the Northern Irish Assembly in 2002, that the IRA held maps and security codes to the British Government’s Northern Irish Office and that the IRA also possessed personal information about all serving prison officers and several unionist politicians.

Mr Donaldson, 55, a Sinn Féin official and close colleague of Mr Adams, was shot dead at an isolated cottage near Glenties in Co Donegal in April 2006. Specifically asked to identify who ordered the killing, he went on: “Gerry Adams, he gives the final say”.

“Martin” dismissed claims the Real IRA was responsible for Mr Donaldson’s murder and said the dissident group made the claim “for the kudos, a forlorn hope that someone might take them more seriously these days”.

Discipline Mr Adams’s solicitor strongly rejected the allegations, saying that his client had no knowledge and no involvement.

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.

“Martin” insisted the mainstream IRA killed Donaldson over his years of betrayal at the heart of the Irish republican movement.

However, Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly has criticised the broadcast and its contents. He had worked for Sinn Féin as an administrator at Stormont, and was killed at a remote Donegal cottage in 2006. At the time Donaldson was in the Middle East he was already working as a British spy.

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The programme alleged the south Armagh IRA leadership was angered by revelations Mr Donaldson had been an informer because he had acted as an intermediary between them and the republican leadership in Belfast.

Denis Donaldson was murdered in Co Donegal in 2006