Ex-soldier is first arrest in N.Ireland Bloody Sunday probe

Agence France Presse

LONDON: British police on Tuesday said they had arrested a former soldier for the Bloody Sunday killings in Londonderry in 1972, one of the worst atrocities in Northern Ireland’s three decades of unrest.
It was the first arrest since a murder investigation was opened in 2012 into the killings of 13 civil rights protesters in the streets that day.
Another victim died months later of his injuries.
“Detectives from Legacy Investigation Branch investigating the events of Bloody Sunday have arrested a 66 year old man in County Antrim,” the Police Service of Northern Ireland said in a statement.
“The suspect is being interviewed at a police station in Belfast,” it said, adding that the arrest marked “a new phase in the overall investigation, which would continue for some time.”
The defense ministry said only that it was “aware an ex-soldier has been arrested.”
“It would be inappropriate to comment further on an ongoing criminal investigation at this stage,” the ministry said in a statement.
Bloody Sunday was one of the darkest days of Northern Ireland’s 30-year sectarian conflict, known as The Troubles, which largely ended with a 1998 peace deal.
Tuesday’s arrest is the first since the publication in 2010 of a 12-year inquiry by London that found none of the victims posed a threat and said that the soldiers gave no warning before firing that day.
Following its publication, Prime Minister David Cameron apologized on behalf of the British people, describing the army’s actions as “unjustified and unjustifiable.”