The former Northern Irish politician Gerry Adams will receive 100,000 euros in a defamation case against the BBC. In a documentary by the broadcaster, Adams was linked to the murder of a British secret agent. It has never been proven that Adams was involved.
The Dublin court ruled on Friday that the BBC acted “unfairly and unreasonably.” Adams’ lawyers spoke of “reckless journalism.”
An anonymous source told the program Spotlight in 2016 that Adams ordered the murder of Denis Donaldson in 2006. Donaldson spied for the British for years at the Northern Irish party Sinn Féin, of which Adams was the leader. Adams denied the accusation and went to court.
Sinn Féin is a major political party in Northern Ireland that certainly wanted to secede from the United Kingdom in the past. Adams was party leader between 1983 and 2018. He is a controversial figure in British and Northern Irish politics.
During Adams’ political career, there were strong rumors that he was also the leader of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). They committed many bombings in England in resistance to British oppression in Northern Ireland. Adams has always denied being involved with the IRA, but also did not speak out against the group.