W2C-010 Sunday Life 2-1.txt
RACKETEERING SQUAD TARGET McGUINNESS Alan Murray

Top republican Martin McGuinness will not face prosecution on the sole basis of material supplied to the RUC by the recent Cook Report programme.

A senior RUC officer at Police Headquarters in Belfast has indicated that the material would not suffice as evidence in a criminal prosecution.

However a major investigation into the activities of the top republican is being conducted by a team of detectives from the RUC's C13 anti-racketeering unit.

The Chief Superintendent in charge of the unit and detectives from his squad are documenting all the Cook Report material on computers and assembling other details as part of a major investigation ordered by the Chief Constable.

Sir Hugh Annesley and his senior officers are concerned at the public perception created by the programme that an all-out effort is not being made to prosecute the so-called godfathers of terrorism in both the loyalist and nationalist camps.

Under the new Northern Ireland Emergency Provisions Act a new offence of directing terrorism at any level with life imprisonment as the maximum penalty is included. It is understood no person has yet been charged with the offence.

The RUC Press Office declined to say whether anyone has been charged with the offence since the Act came into force two years ago.

One senior RUC officer has explained that even if some of the witnesses interviewed by Roger Cook's researchers were prepared to appear in a criminal trial their own terrorist backgrounds would undermine the credibility of their testimony.

While the top Derry republican is said to be livid about the content of the programme, there is little expectation at Police Headquarters that Cook's material alone will provide the basis for a file that might be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions in the future.
