Northern Ireland Minister of Justice David Ford speaks to the media outside Antrim Police station, Northern Ireland, Friday, May, 2 2014. Police continue to question the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE- In this Monday, May 31, 1999 file photo, Helen McHendry and husband Seamus find the agonizing wait for the recovery of Helen's mother all too much as Irish police continue to search for the body... (Associated Press) 
 
 The heavily fortified Police station in Antrim, Northern Ireland, Thursday, May, 1 2014. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has been arrested and is being questioned at Antrim police station about the 1972... (Associated Press) 
 
 Author and IRA expert Ed Moloney talks to reporters at his home in New York, Thursday, May 1, 2014. Moloney, author of the definitive "A Secret History of the IRA," argues that the police investigation... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012, file photo, Helen McKendry holds a family photo with her mother, Jean McConville, at home in Killyleagh, Northern Ireland. Police in Northern Ireland arrested... (Associated Press) 
 
 A woman and child make their way past a newly painted mural of Gerry Adams on the Falls Road, West Belfast, Northern Ireland, Friday, May, 2 2014. Police continue to question the Sinn Fein leader Gerry... (Associated Press) 
 
 A man passes graffiti on the Falls Road, West Belfast, Northern Ireland, Saturday, May, 3, 2014, in reference to former Republicans who took park in the Boston college tape recordings. Police continue... (Associated Press) 
 
 "Free Adams" is seen written on a wall on the Falls Road, West Belfast, Northern Ireland, Saturday, May, 3, 2014. Police continue to question the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams at Antrim police station... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2013 file photo, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams speaks to the media at Stormont Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland police say they have arrested Sinn... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Tuesday Feb. 19, 2008 file photo, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, right, carries the coffin of senior IRA commander Brendan Hughes, in west Belfast, Northern Ireland. Police in Northern... (Associated Press) 
 
 Michael McConville, the son of Jean McConville who was murdered by the IRA, speaks to the media at the Wave Trauma centre in Belfast, Thursday, May, 1, 2014. Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams is still... (Associated Press) 
 
 Northern Ireland Minister of Justice David Ford speaks to the media outside Antrim Police station, Northern Ireland, Friday, May, 2 2014. Police continue to question the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams... (Associated Press) 
 
 A police armoured vehicle passes a newly painted mural of Gerry Adams on the Falls Road, West Belfast, Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland, Friday, May, 2 2014. Police continue to question the Sinn Fein... (Associated Press) ||||| 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.