The British police on Tuesday arrested a former soldier for the Bloody Sunday killings in Londonderry in 1972, part of a probe aimed at healing the wounds of Northern Ireland’s three decades of unrest
The British police on Tuesday arrested a former soldier for the Bloody Sunday killings in Londonderry in 1972, part of a probe aimed at healing the wounds of Northern Ireland’s three decades of unrest.
It was the first arrest since a murder investigation was opened in 2012 into the killings of 13 Catholic civil rights protesters in the streets that day, one of the worst incidents in the province’s long sectarian conflict.
Another victim died months later of his injuries.“Detectives from Legacy Investigation Branch investigating the events of Bloody Sunday have arrested a 66-year-old man in County Antrim,” the police in Northern Ireland said in a statement. “The suspect is being interviewed at a police station in Belfast,” it said, adding that the arrest marked “a new phase in the overall investigation which would continue for some time”.
Irish political party Sinn Fein, formerly the political wing of the Irish Republican Army paramilitary group, welcomed the arrest of the man whose identity has not been released. Bloody Sunday helped bolster support for the IRA during 30 years of sectarian bloodshed.
