Released murder suspect re-arrested

Colin Duffy, 41, from Lurgan, Co Armagh, was one of six suspects held over the killings of two British soldiers and a policeman and whose lawyers challenged a court order granting detectives more time to quiz them.

All were set free from a police interrogation centre in Antrim.

But, while five were driven out at high speed with coats over their heads, officers seized Duffy to face new questioning about the murders

His lawyers and family protested bitterly about the re-arrest but police stood by the decision to keep him in custody as their investigations into the killings continued. "This remains a live and active major investigation and detectives are following a number of definite lines of inquiry," a police spokesman said.

Duffy, a dissident republican opposed to the peace process, was once cleared of the IRA murders of a soldier and two police officers who were gunned down in separate attacks in 1993 and 1997.

Four of the six suspects, whose legal bid was upheld in Belfast High Court, were being questioned over the Real IRA murders of Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, and Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, outside an Army barracks in Antrim earlier this month.

The other two were being questioned over the death two days later of Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Constable Stephen Carroll, 48, in the Co Armagh town of Craigavon.

A 17-year-old boy and 37-year-old former Sinn Fein councillor Brendan McConville, from Glenholme Avenue, Lurgan, have already been charged with the policeman's murder, which at the time was claimed by Continuity IRA. A lawyer for McConville, who was in court in Lisburn 24 hours after the teenager appeared, said he denied involvement in the killing.

A 21-year-old man was later charged with withholding information about the murder of Pc Carroll. He will appear at Lisburn Magistrates' Court. It is understood the man was not one of the six people involved in Wednesday's High Court bid.