McGuinness could face charges over refusal to answer questions
The Saville Inquiry has warned Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness that he could face contempt of court charges for refusing to name people who were members of the Provisional IRA on Bloody Sunday.
The warning came after Mr McGuinness finished two days of evidence to the inquiry about his actions on January 30, 1972, when 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead by British soldiers in Derry.
Mr McGuinness had told the inquiry that he would not betray people who had placed their trust in him and he refused to name members of the IRA or state the location of IRA safe houses in Derry.
The Sinn Féin MP has already admitted to being second-in-command of the Derry IRA at the time of Bloody Sunday.
During his evidence, the Mr McGuinness said he had personally ordered all IRA volunteers not to engage British soldiers during the Catholic civil rights march on Bloody Sunday. He said there was absolutely no truth in claims by British soldiers that they had been fired on first on the day, adding that there were only a few people on the planet who believed those allegations.
He also poured scorn on other British army suggestions that IRA members who were killed and injured on Bloody Sunday were secretly transported across the border for treatment or burial.
Speaking after finishing his evidence yesterday, Mr McGuinness said he would rather go to jail or die than break his IRA code of honour by naming other members. It would be ironic, he said, if he was the only person to be imprisoned in connection with the Saville Inquiry when all of those who were killed and wounded on Bloody Sunday were shot by British soldiers.
He also said it was obvious that the IRA did not open fire on British soldiers in Derry before they killed the 13 civilians who died on the day.
"Anybody watching the proceedings over the course of the last two days cannot fail to be impressed with the argument that has been made by the Irish Republican Army over the course of over 30 years that none of its volunteers were in any way active militarily against the British forces of occupation at that time," Mr McGuinness said.
