The issuing of an international warrant to arrest the brother of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, who faces sex abuse charges in Northern Ireland, has been hit with a further delay.
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While the official papers needed to detain Liam Adams in the Republic of Ireland have now been received by the Irish justice department, the authorities in Dublin have identified a number of technicalities in the documentation.
During a Policing Board meeting in Belfast, Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris said the PSNI must answer those questions before an arrest warrant can be enforced by Gardai.
Mr Harris added Mr Adams would then have the right to challenge the warrant in the courts.
In response to a question from the DUP's Ian Paisley regarding a time frame for the warrant, Mr Harris said: "It is very difficult to put a timeline as to when Mr Adams will come back to this jurisdiction."
Liam Adams, who is in his 50s, faces 23 charges of abusing his daughter Aine Tyrell in Northern Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s.
The sex abuse claims became public in December when Ms Tyrell waived her right to anonymity in a UTV documentary.
Since, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has faced calls to explain how Liam Adams chaired a local branch of Sinn Fein in west Belfast in 2000, three years after Gerry Adams says he had him expelled from party ranks.
Gerry Adams, who vehemently denied any wrongdoing, revealed in the Insight Special he knew about the allegations since 1987.
He said statutory bodies including the police were told of the allegation in 1987.
Three years ago, after Aine Tyrell went to police, Gerry Adams said he made a statement to the PSNI in support of her niece and against his brother.
Liam Adams gave himself up to Irish police in Co Sligo in the Republic before Christmas. But Gardai could not detain him as they did not have the correct warrant.
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