A brother of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams is not yet prepared to surrender himself to police in Northern Ireland where he is wanted to face charges of sexually abusing his daughter, it was revealed.

Adams has been living in the Irish Republic - a separate legal and political jurisdiction - after failing to appear in court in Belfast on 23 charges relating to the alleged sexual abuse of his daughter, Aine Tyrell, when she was a child.

His brother, also the MP for West Belfast, urged him to give himself up when he revealed that their late father, Gerry Senior, had emotionally and physically sexually abused members of his family over many years.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland is preparing to issue a European warrant for Adams's arrest. It could take another four weeks however before all the paper work is complete,

Adams walked into a police station in Sligo in the Irish Republic on Monday afternoon where he was interviewed. He was later released because the proper arrest warrant had not been prepared and served.

It was the first time in more than a year that his whereabouts were known to the authorities on both sides of the border after he failed to turn up for a court appearance in November last year.

His legal representative, Philip Breen, of Breen Rankin Lenzi Solicitors, said his client would not be crossing the border where he is liable to immediate arrest. Police in the Republic have no powers to detain him until the European arrest warrant is issued by the PSNI.

Mr Breen said he "can't see how Liam will ever get a fair trial in this jurisdiction (Northern Ireland) because of what has been said in the media".

He said his client had only been contacted once, in February 2007, by police investigating the allegations.

He told the Belfast-based Irish News newspaper: "These allegations came to light in 1987, according to what we had been told by police during his arrest. We were told by police that the alleged injured party didn't wish to proceed but she wished to have Mr Adams spoken to by police.

"At absolutely no time up until 2007 (when Ms Tyrell decided to proceed with the complaint) did police speak to Mr Adams. In 2007 police called to a residence and left a police card for Mr Adams to contact them.

"He immediately contacted them and went voluntarily to the police station in my company. Throughout a series of interviews he strenuously denied the allegations."

Adams, he said, was interviewed three times on February 15, 2007 at Grosvenor Road police station in west Belfast before being released by police pending a report to the PPS. Prosecution papers were issued in March the following year but were never served as Adams could not be located.

Mr Breen said he had no information about his client's whereabouts during that time. He had not seen him since February 2007, but received a call on Monday night from "a family member" asking for representation for Adams who had, by that stage, already handed himself in to police in Sligo.

The solicitor was also contacted last week by another of Liam Adams's daughters who asked him to lodge a complaint with the Police Ombudsman after she claimed officers "forced their way into her house under a warrant" to look for her father two days after Aine waived to right to anonymity to level the accusations.

Mr Breen said Adams was prepared to be arrested under the European warrant.

"If it is served on him he will be arrested, he knows that," he said. "He would be brought to a Dublin court - that's his legal right - and at that stage will decide what his best legal option is."

However, his legal team has not recommended that he return to Northern Ireland.

"He is fully entitled to utilise every mechanism available to him within the legal system," Mr Breen said. "There is no point asking for the services of a solicitor and not taking the advice of the solicitor and counsel (barrister). There is nobody out there who wouldn't (do the same)."

The solicitor said he does not believe it would be possible for his client to have a fair trial in Northern Ireland. It may also be unlikely in the Republic, he claimed.

Mr Breen added: "He is not going to surrender himself up here (Northern Ireland) at the moment," he said. "We will revisit that if and when we have to in the future."

It is understood Gerry Adams first became aware of the allegations against his brother as far back as the last 1980s. But it has now emerged that, since then, Liam Adams had been working with young people involved in youth groups in west Belfast and Dundalk, Co Louth.