Northern Ireland police release Sinn Fein leader from custody

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Sunday released Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams who was arrested Wednesday in connection with the murder of a woman in 1972.

The "65-year-old man arrested by detectives investigating the abduction and murder of Jean McConville has been released pending report to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS)," the PSNI said on its twitter feed, Xinhua reported.

On Wednesday, the PSNI said it had arrested a 65-year-old man in connection with the abduction and murder of McConville.

Both local media and the Sinn Fein party identified the arrested as Gerry Adams, president of the Sinn Fein.

Police said McConville, a widowed mother of 10 children, was abducted in December 1972 from her flat in the Divis area of West Belfast and shot by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Her body was recovered from a beach in County Louth, in Irish Republic, in August 2003, according to the PSNI.

Police said that the suspect had voluntarily attended Antrim police station.

Prior to his arrest Wednesday, Adams in a statement on the website of Sinn Fein said, "Last month I said that I was available to meet the PSNI about the Jean McConville case. While I have concerns about the timing, I am voluntarily meeting with the PSNI this evening."

Adams added he was "innocent of any part in the abduction, killing or burial of McConville."

Adams' Sinn Fein colleagues have accused the PSNI and the British government of "political policing" aimed at disrupting local government and EU elections that will take place in three weeks.

"The arrest of Gerry Adams is evidence of that there is an element within the PSNI who are against the peace process and who hate Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein," Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said Saturday in a statement, slamming the arrest of Gerry Adams as "politically motivated."