BELFAST — A senior member of Northern Ireland's main Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein has been arrested in relation to the murder of a former Irish Republican Army member, a development that could further destabilize the power-sharing government. Police suspect members of the IRA, a paramilitary group that is supposed to have disbanded under a 1998 peace deal, were involved in the Aug. 12 shooting of Kevin McGuigan. The junior pro-British Unionist party has already quit Northern Ireland's grand coalition in protest, and the larger one has threatened to follow suit. Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA during three decades of armed resistance to British rule in Northern Ireland, said one of three men arrested on Wednesday was its regional chairman, Bobby Storey. “I was surprised to learn about the arrest this morning of our six-county party chair Bobby Storey,” said Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, deputy first minister of Northern Ireland. “We look forward with confidence to his early release.” Sinn Fein denies the IRA is still active, saying it “left the stage” after a 2005 ceasefire. The disarmament of the IRA and pro-British paramilitary groups led to the power-sharing government between Irish nationalists and pro-British Unionists. Any confirmation of links between Sinn Fein and the killing could derail crisis talks under way between Northern Ireland's main parties trying to prevent the government's collapse. Police have arrested 13 other people as part of their investigation, charging one with firearms offences. The others were released unconditionally. — Reuters
