'It's time to come clean on your past'
MARTIN McGuinness is today under pressure to cooperate with the police on claims he lied to the Bloody Sunday tribunal and has information about an IRA murder.
Claims that he perjured himself at the inquiry have emerged in a new book.
Meanwhile, the PSNI are also to interview him about allegations he conducted an IRA internal inquiry into the killing of Eoin Morley in Newry in 1990.
Last night, the DUP's Jim Allister and MP Peter Robinson called for the Mid- Ulster MP to immediately talk to the PSNI if he wanted his party's claims of support for law and order to be taken seriously.
Failure to do so would not bode well for Sinn Fein's chance of re-entering in government – and Mr McGuinness becoming Deputy First Minister – it was indicated.
Sinn Fein's chief negotiator has been accused of lying under oath at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry by an ex-IRA hunger striker.
Brendan Hughes told Spanish writer Rogelio Alonso – in the book the IRA and the Armed Struggle – that McGuinness was still involved within the Provos in the late 1980s.
Yet the Sinn Fein man told Lord Saville's tribunal that he had cut links a decade earlier.
Hughes said: "When people get caught up in lies, thay have to continue with the lies."
At the weekend, Mr McGuinness refused to say whether what he told the Inquiry was accurate.
Hughes has also claimed that at a meeting in Donegal in 1986, McGuinness authorised a "major push" on military and police bases.
One such attack went badly wrong for the terrorists, when at Loughall in 1987 the SAS shot dead eight IRA men while they had been launching an assault on the local RUC station.
Hughes, a senior member of the IRA during the Troubles, told Alonso that McGuinness believed the attacks would protect himself and Gerry Adams against internal criticism as they had tried to make changes in Sinn Fein rules.
Hughes has confirmed the interview is accurate.
Meanwhile, it also emerged that McGuinness will be interviewed by the PSNI about the death of Mr Morley, who was murdered in 1990 by the IRA when he was shot in the back after being held hostage at his girlfriend's home in Newry.
The killing was thought to be a punishment attack gone wrong and was described in the book Unsung Hero, about the activities of undercover Army agent Kevin Fulton.
Mr Allister said: "These allegations pose serious questions which someone who thinks he is fit to be Deputy First Minister must answer.
"The hands-on role attributed to McGuinness in making key 'military' decisions in the IRA, long after he claimed, on oath to the Saville Inquiry that he had left, warrant not just truthful clarity from McGuinness but should cause police enquiries as to whether the offence of perjury was committed.
"If Sinn Fein wish to be taken seriously in their protestations of willingness to support the rule of law, then candid addressing of the past would contribute."
Mr Robinson said: "McGuinness is accused of being complicit in the decision to proceed with a number of bombings and it ties him into responsibility beyond the date he admits to being in the IRA.
"Sinn Fein says that support should be given to the police, the courts and the rule of law. This is an opportunity for them to comply, conform and cooperate."
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Weather for Belfast
Sunday 27 May 2012
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Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
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