The Northern Irish unionist party DUP announced on Friday March 29 the resignation of its leader Jeffrey Donaldson, after his indictment in an old affair of a sexual nature according to the British media.

The party leadership "received a letter from MP Jeffrey Donaldson confirming that he has been indicted on old charges and indicating that he is resigning as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party with immediate effect", the DUP announced in a statement .

Earlier on Friday, without revealing the identity of the suspects, the Northern Irish police announced the indictment of a 61-year-old man – Donaldson's age – for “non-recent” sexual offenses. He is due to appear in court in Newry on April 24, along with a 57-year-old woman, charged with complicity.

According to the BBC, he is notably charged with rape and indicated in a letter addressed to his party that he would vigorously contest the charges against him. Jeffrey Donaldson suddenly deleted his social media accounts.

“In accordance with party rules,” Jeffrey Donaldson has been suspended as a member pending the outcome of legal proceedings, the DUP continued in a statement released after an emergency meeting. The party's deputy leader, MP Gavin Robinson, was unanimously chosen as interim leader.

Moderate among unionists

Member of the Westminster Parliament since 1997, leader of the DUP (which he joined at the very beginning of 2004) since June 2021, Jeffrey Donaldson appeared as a rather moderate figure within the unionist movement, committed to maintaining Northern Ireland in the within the United Kingdom.

Seeing post-Brexit trade arrangements as a threat to the position of the British province, the DUP boycotted for two years the Northern Irish institutions, resulting from the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998, signed after three decades of conflict bloody surrounding British rule over this part of the island.

After an agreement reached with the British government, the DUP ended its boycott in February, allowing Michelle O'Neill (Sinn Fein) to become the first head of the Northern Irish government to support the unification of the Ireland, almost two years after the victory of the Republican Party, formerly the political showcase of the IRA (Irish Republican Army), in local elections.

On Friday, Michelle O'Neill, who leads the Northern Ireland government alongside Deputy Prime Minister Emma Little-Pengelly (DUP), stressed that her priority was "to continue to provide the leadership that the public expect and deserve" and that the matter concerning Jeffrey Donaldson was a matter for justice.

Jeffrey Donaldson was to lead the DUP campaign in the next general elections in the United Kingdom, expected by the end of next year, probably in the autumn.

He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2016.

With AFP

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