Police warn Kelly of death threat
The police have warned Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly that dissident republicans plan to attack him in the near future.
Gerry Kelly has been told his life is in danger
Mr Kelly showed reporters an official warning he had received before heading into the first meeting of the Stormont sub-group on policing and justice.
Sinn Fein has said its members would “take precautions to minimise risks”.
Republican sources say threats to senior party members have come from disaffected IRA members who left the organisation in recent months.
Speaking on BBC Newsline’s i-Generation webcast for young people last month, Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said threats to the Sinn Fein leadership from dissident republicans were “very real”.
Sir Hugh said the dissidents were “determined to wreck everything that has been achieved in Northern Ireland”.
“The Sinn Fein leadership say their perception is the threat against them has increased - I don’t think they’re wrong,” he said.
“Because of where the leadership wants to take their organisation, which is down a political and an entirely proper route towards a debate on the future of the island of Ireland, there are people who don’t want that to happen.
“They’d far rather do what they’ve done in the past, which is violence.”
