Northern Ireland found a government only two months ago, after two years without an executive, but one of the two coalition parties has already lost its president. The Democratic Unionist Party, the DUP, has just dismissed Jeffrey Donaldson from office.
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With our correspondent in London, Emeline Vin
Jeffrey Donaldson is being prosecuted for “ non-recent sexual offenses », in the words of the Northern Irish police. According to BBC, the former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party is accused of rape and sexual assault. We do not know the age, number of victims, or date of the alleged events.
Early Thursday morning, Northern Irish police arrested a couple. But Jeffrey Donaldson’s identity was confirmed Friday morning after his social media accounts were deleted and his party removed him from office in an emergency meeting. The party leadership received a letter from MP Jeffrey Donaldson confirming that he has been indicted on old charges and stating that he is resigning as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party with immediate effect », announced the DUP in a press release.
Jeffrey Donaldson, knighted in 2016, has been elected to the British Parliament for almost 30 years and helped bring down the Northern Irish government two years ago, then to reinstate it at the beginning of February. Local elected officials now fear a new period of instability.
Jeffrey Donaldson, who retains his seat as a Westminster MP, is due to appear in a Northern Irish court on April 24 and has already announced he will contest “ strongly ” the allegations.
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