Dublin, (EFE).- The former president of Sinn F\u00e9in, Gerry Adams, has been the victim of an \u201cunjustified attack\u201d by the British broadcaster BBC and has seen his reputation as a \u201cpeacemaker\u201d damaged during Northern Ireland\u2019s past conflict, his defense team told the High Court in Dublin on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adams, 76, is suing the BBC for defamation after it accused him in a 2016 broadcast of ordering the murder of his party colleague Denis Donaldson, who was shot dead in 2006 after admitting he had spied for British security forces for over two decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the start of the trial today, Adams\u2019 lawyers argued that the Spotlight television program, produced by the BBC in Northern Ireland, had committed a \u201cjournalistic error\u201d by making serious accusations based solely on \u201ca single anonymous source.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe anonymous source was never informed that Gerry Adams denied involvement. The BBC failed to carry out the necessary checks. The program should have warned that the accusation was unverified. It was reckless journalism,\u201d said lawyer Tom Hogan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He recalled that \u201cmany people have said things\u201d about Adams, who has always denied membership in the now-defunct Irish Republican Army (IRA), despite leading Sinn F\u00e9in, widely seen as the political wing of the paramilitary group, for 34 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The nationalist leader \u201cwill not let his accusation stand,\u201d Hogan emphasized, noting that it took Adams \u201ca lifetime\u201d to build his reputation as a \u201cpeacemaker\u201d and that \u201cthis case is, in essence, an unjustified attack on his role in history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donaldson, who confessed in 2005 to having spied for British intelligence services for over 20 years, was expelled from Sinn F\u00e9in when his double life was revealed and went into hiding in a remote cottage in County Donegal, where he was executed by unknown assailants in Apr. 2006. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Initially, his murder was believed to have been carried out by the IRA, but three years later, the dissident group Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing of the party\u2019s former head of administration at Stormont, the seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly. EFE <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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