FOURTEEN MEN HAVE been arrested by police in the North at the funeral of Michael Barr.
Barr, a 34-year-old originally from Tyrone, was shot in the head at the Sunset House pub in Summerhill shortly after 9.30pm last Monday.
He was suspected of being a senior figure in the dissident republican movement.
The state dropped an IRA membership charge against Barr after he pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court to handling stolen electrical equipment in 2014.
The PSNI says all the men were arrested under the Terrorism Act.
The funeral was attended by hundreds of people, many in paramilitary-style dress.
Speaking to reporters in Derry today, District Commander Superintendent Mark McEwan said the men were arrested after a “paramilitary-style display”.
“The public expect us to act,” The Derry Journal reports.
“The scenes that we have seen today are unique.
“Sometimes it is more appropriate that we would take an evidence gathering approach and seek to follow that up with arrests and potential prosecutions at a later date.
“But, in the situation that presented itself this morning, it was appropriate, necessary and proportionate we take these steps and so 15 men were arrested.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say