I.R.A. link tipped in murder

Press, 27 March 1979, Page 8

I.R.A. link tipped in murder

NZPA-Reuter The Hague The Dutch police have revealed they have received a tip that two Irish Republican Army men said to have been involved in the murder of the British Ambassador to the Netherlands (Sir Richard Sykes) were now in Belfast. They said the tip had been passed on to them by the British Government. Informed sources said the original information had been provided by a usuallyreliable informant living in the Canary Islands who had links with the I.R.A. According to his information, two or three Irishmen stayed in a "safe house” in Amsterdam for several days before the assassination there on Thursday. The sources said they did not know whether any of these men had actually fired the shots that killed Sir Richard and his teen-age Dutch footman, or had merely arranged the attack. A prominent member of the Belfast brigade of the Provisional wing of the I.R.A. said there that Irish guerrillas “were involved,” but gave no details.

A police spokeswoman said the tip had led them to question an Irishman living in Amsterdam, but the man had nothing to do with the affair and had been released. Two Scotland Yard detectives who had been helping the Dutch police had returned . to London, the spokeswoman said. “They will continue their investigations on the case from London, but will return here if we need them badly,” she said.

A task force of 25 Dutch detectives, led by the Chief Commissioner (Mr Hans van Driel), is trying to trace the house in which the Irishmen are believed to have stayed.