A woman in her late 50s has been arrested in connection with one of the most notorious murders of the Northern Ireland Troubles – the abduction, killing and secret burial of the west Belfast widow Jean McConville. 
 
 The 57-year-old woman was detained by police officers in the west of the city on Wednesday morning and taken to Antrim police station for questioning. 
 
 She has since been released pending a police report being sent to prosecutors. 
 
 McConville was the most famous of the "disappeared", up to 16 victims of the IRA who were murdered and then buried secretly across Ireland in the 1970s and 80s. 
 
 Last month a former IRA negotiator with the British government, Ivor Bell, was charged with aiding and abetting in the murder of the 37-year-old mother of 10. Bell, who is out on bail, denies any involvement. 
 
 McConville, a Protestant-born widow, was dragged out of her flat in front of her children by armed IRA members in the Divis area shortly before Christmas in 1972. The IRA only admitted they had killed her in 1999 after a high-profile campaign by families of the "disappeared". 
 
 The IRA alleged that she was an informer but an investigation by the former police ombudsman Dame Nuala O'Loan concluded the widow was not working for the security forces as an agent. 
 
 Her murder has cast a long shadow over the peace process and the political settlement in Northern Ireland. The former IRA hunger striker and one-time commander of the Provisionals in Belfast Brendan Hughes alleged that the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, gave the order that McConville be buried in secret and that the future leader of the republican movement came up with the idea of creating a covert IRA unit that would "disappear" suspected informants. 
 
 Adams has always denied any role in the murder and has protested that he was never in the IRA. 
 
 Hughes, a former friend of the Sinn Féin chief who died in 2008, made his allegation on a tape recording for the Belfast Project, an archive of testimonies from ex-IRA and loyalist paramilitaries who would speak frankly about their involvement in violent acts during the Troubles. 
 
 The case against Bell is allegedly centred on another tape recording for the archive, which was meant to become a groundbreaking historical project for Boston College in the United States. However, the Police Service of Northern Ireland pursued the tapes through the courts in the US and have acquired some of the material which allegedly relates to the McConville murder. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Gerry Adams: "I have never dissociated myself from the IRA and I never will... The IRA is gone. It is finished" 
 
 Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has criticised the timing of his arrest over the IRA murder of Jean McConville. 
 
 Speaking after his release following four days of questioning, Mr Adams said there was a "sustained, malicious, untruthful campaign" alleging his involvement in the 1972 killing. 
 
 A file will be sent to the Public Prosecution Service, police said as he was released. 
 
 Mrs McConville's son said the family's fight for justice would continue. 
 
 Jean McConville, a 37-year-old widow, was abducted from her Belfast home, shot and secretly buried. 
 
 Her body was found on a beach in County Louth in 2003. 
 
 "The McConville family is going to stay to the bitter end until we get justice," Michael McConville said. 
 
 "These have been quite difficult days for the McConville family and they have been very stressful. We would like the people to know that the family is going to stay to the bitter end until we get justice for our mother. 
 
 "We know it is going to be a long road, but we have already been fighting for justice for 40 odd years and we are not going to stop now." 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Michael McConville: "These have been difficult days for the McConville family" 
 
 Speaking at a press conference in Belfast following his release on Sunday evening, Mr Adams said he had contacted Northern Ireland police two months ago about the McConville case. 
 
 He said he had gone voluntarily to police last week and then been arrested. He questioned their timing in the middle of an election campaign and claimed they could have used discretion rather than arresting him. They did not need to use "pernicious, coercive legislation to deal with a legacy issue", he said. 
 
 The Sinn Féin leader said police had conducted 33 taped interviews and detectives had presented him with old photographs of himself and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and with interviews conducted by people who were "enemies of the peace process". 
 
 He added he did not go to Antrim police station "expecting special treatment", but said his arrest had sent out the "wrong signal". 
 
 Mr Adams, a former MP for West Belfast and now an elected representative for County Louth in the Irish parliament, presented himself for interview by prior arrangement with detectives on Wednesday night. He was then arrested under the terrorism act for questioning about the IRA murder of mother of 10 Mrs McConville. 
 
 At Sunday's press conference, he again said he was innocent of any involvement in her murder. 
 
 He said Sinn Féin remained fully committed to the political process in Northern Ireland. "The IRA is gone, it's finished," he added. 
 
 "I want to make it clear that I support the PSNI." 
 
 Prime Minister David Cameron discussed Mr Adams' release on Sunday night during a phone call with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny. 
 
 Image caption Police officers and vans emerged from Antrim PSNI station but it was thought to be a decoy, as Mr Adams was taken out by another route 
 
 On Sunday, as loyalists blocked the front of the police station, Mr Adams was taken out by a different exit. 
 
 Later on Sunday night there were reports of disorder in the loyalist Sandy Row area of south Belfast. 
 
 Other political parties have rejected claims that the timing of the arrest was political. 
 
 Democratic Unionist Jeffrey Donaldson said: "There is nothing within the law of Northern Ireland or the UK that says that during an election campaign the police have to suspend the investigation of murder. 
 
 "That would be absurd and would be political policing." 
 
 Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt said: "Our thoughts are with the McConville family tonight. Their 42 years wait for truth and justice makes Gerry Adams's complaint over the 'two month' delay between him offering to speak to the PSNI and their response seem churlish to say the least. 
 
 "Let us remember it was Gerry Adams who initiated this sequence of events." 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Gerry Adams left in a convoy that exited the rear of Antrim police station, as Jon Brain reports 
 
 Social Democratic and Labour Party leader Alasdair McDonnell said: "I see the fact that Gerry Adams presented himself voluntarily to a police station. As the timing was his, I find it hard to justify when there would be an appropriate time to arrest a political leader." 
 
 Northern Ireland Justice Minister David Ford of Alliance said he saw politicians from a variety of backgrounds seeking to interfere in policing. 
 
 "I think politicians would be extremely well advised to steer out of allegations of political policing," he said. 
 
 The Traditional Unionist Voice party said: "The release of Adams without charge raises serious questions as to how far the authorities blinked in the face of Sinn Fein threats and tantrums." 
 
 Lawyers to decide 
 
 The decision to release Mr Adams means that prosecution lawyers will decide if charges will be brought. 
 
 The file sent by the police to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) will detail the evidence gathered. 
 
 It will be up to PPS lawyers to decide if there is enough evidence to bring any charges and what those charges would be. 
 
 Image caption Police officers in riot gear waited outside the station 
 
 The test for prosecution is met if there is sufficient evidence that can be admitted in court to provide a reasonable prospect of conviction. Lawyers must also decide if the prosecution is required in the public interest. 
 
 It could take some time for police to prepare the file for the PPS, with prosecutors then taking a further period to assess whatever evidence is presented. 
 
 Northern Ireland's director of public prosecutions, Barra McGrory QC, is a former solicitor for Mr Adams and so will delegate a decision on the file to his deputy. 
 
 Mrs McConville is one of Northern Ireland's Disappeared, those who were abducted, murdered and buried in secret by republicans during the Troubles. 
 
 She was kidnapped from her home in Divis Flats in west Belfast in front of her children after being wrongly accused of being an informer to the British Army. 
 
 Boston College tapes 
 
 Last month, Ivor Bell, 77, a leader in the Provisional IRA in the 1970s, was charged with aiding and abetting the murder, and there have also been a number of other arrests recently. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Jean McConville, a widowed mother of 10, was abducted and murdered by the IRA in December 1972 
 
 The case against Mr Bell is based on an interview he allegedly gave to researchers at Boston College in the US. 
 
 The Boston College tapes are a series of candid, confessional interviews with former loyalist and republican paramilitaries, designed to be an oral history of the Troubles.
– Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, lately the very high-profile suspect in a 1972 murder, will go free without charge, Northern Ireland police officials tell the BBC. Adams has been questioned since Wednesday in County Antrim over allegations that he, as an IRA commander ordered the murder of a 37-year-old widow and mom of 10, Jean McConville. The AP confirms the report, saying that Adams will likely be freed today, but notes that police say they'll send an evidence file to their British counterparts.