RAAD claims are “tissue of lies” - murder victim’s relative
Crowds gathered in Gobnascale, to protest at the killing of Andrew Allen. INLS 1208-534MT.
A relative of murder victim Andrew Allen has described the wording of the claim of responsibility for the atrocity by vigilante group Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) as a “tissue of lies” .
RAAD issued a statement on Wednesday morning claiming they had ‘executed’ the 24 year-old father of two at his home just outside Buncrana on February 9. The statement was issued to the Derry Journal using a recognised codeword.
The statement claimed that the organisation’s ‘Donegal unit’ carried out the killing and claimed that Mr Allen was a “career criminal”. They also stated that the victim had been warned to “cease his activities five to six months ago” and also claimed that the victim had used RAAD’s name to “scare other drug dealers and to extort money from weaker criminals” .
However, an uncle of the victim has dismissed RAAD’s statement.
William Allen said: “This tissue of lies is beneath contempt. I do not intend to give this gang any undeserved credibility by engaging them in public debate other than to say the propaganda peddled by these dealers in death could not have been repeated by the media had Andy not been murdered.
“None of the media outlets carrying these claims would have dared to do so had Andy been alive because of the very serious legal consequences.”
Mr Allen also reasserted previous comments that in the original warning from police about his life being in danger, at no point was RAAD or drugs mentioned.
William Allen said: “At a rally last Saturday in protest against Andy’s murder the press was shown a copy of the threat. If RAAD was the republican death squad behind this murder the questions remain about who instigated this atrocity and why.”
The murder of Andrew Allen is the first for which RAAD have claimed responsibility. The group also claimed that on the night of Mr Allen’s murder at his home in Links View, Lisfannon, they were forced to call off another attack in Derry because of increased PSNI activity in the city.
RAAD also said that an ‘amnesty’ to drug dealers was still on offer but those who do not avail of it would suffer the “ultimate sanction.”
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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