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Real IRA Leader Found Guilty
Real IRA leader found guilty
Aug 07, 2003
The leader of an IRA splinter group that was behind the deadliest bomb attack in Northern Irish history was found guilty on Wednesday of directing terrorism and could face life imprisonment.
A Dublin court also convicted Real IRA boss Michael McKevitt, a 53-year-old businessman from the Irish border town of Dundalk, of belonging to an illegal organisation.
Relatives of some of the 29 victims of the 1998 Omagh bombing called McKevitt a coward for refusing to leave his cell to hear the judgement.
"We now know what we suspected all along. McKevitt is a terrorist, a man who has the blood of innocent people on his hands," Stanley McCombe, who lost his wife in the blast, said outside the heavily-guarded court.
McKevitt was the first person in Ireland to be convicted of directing terrorism, a charge introduced after Omagh. He will be sentenced on Thursday but has already indicated his intention to appeal.
The prosecution's case relied heavily on the evidence of former FBI spy David Rupert, a US citizen who was paid more than $US1 million to infiltrate the Real IRA while posing as the group's chief fund-raiser in the United States.
Dissident republicans still a threat
The verdict follows renewed activity by dissident republicans in recent months.
Security sources say that while the Real IRA is small, with an active membership numbering in the dozens rather than hundreds, they are taking no chances.
"There remains within this jurisdiction groups who are hell-bent on attacking democratic principles and we will do all in our power to investigate them," said Detective Superintendent Martin Callinan of the Irish police force.
McKevitt, who is married to the sister of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands who died in 1981, was arrested in early 2001 and had denied both the charges on which he was convicted.
He sacked his legal team in the latter stages of the five-week trial and pledged to take no further part in a "political show trial".
The Real IRA split from the main Irish Republican Army in 1997 after opposing the British province's peace process.
The following August the group detonated a 225-kg car bomb in Omagh on a busy Saturday afternoon.
The prosecution case against McKevitt hinged on evidence by Rupert, who described how he had sat in on Real IRA "army council" meetings with McKevitt as a renewed campaign of violence in Britain and Northern Ireland was being discussed.
McKevitt, he said, had been in favour of an attack that would "be spectacular and overshadow Omagh".
Although McKevitt's defence sought to cast Rupert as an unreliable witness, drawing attention to his shady business past, the court ruled that his testimony was credible.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed at Omagh, said he hoped the tide was now turning in favour of the victims' families, who have yet to see anyone charged with murder in relation to the bombing which occurred five years ago next week.
Aug 07, 2003
The leader of an IRA splinter group that was behind the deadliest bomb attack in Northern Irish history was found guilty on Wednesday of directing terrorism and could face life imprisonment.
A Dublin court also convicted Real IRA boss Michael McKevitt, a 53-year-old businessman from the Irish border town of Dundalk, of belonging to an illegal organisation.
Relatives of some of the 29 victims of the 1998 Omagh bombing called McKevitt a coward for refusing to leave his cell to hear the judgement.
"We now know what we suspected all along. McKevitt is a terrorist, a man who has the blood of innocent people on his hands," Stanley McCombe, who lost his wife in the blast, said outside the heavily-guarded court.
McKevitt was the first person in Ireland to be convicted of directing terrorism, a charge introduced after Omagh. He will be sentenced on Thursday but has already indicated his intention to appeal.
The prosecution's case relied heavily on the evidence of former FBI spy David Rupert, a US citizen who was paid more than $US1 million to infiltrate the Real IRA while posing as the group's chief fund-raiser in the United States.
Dissident republicans still a threat
The verdict follows renewed activity by dissident republicans in recent months.
Security sources say that while the Real IRA is small, with an active membership numbering in the dozens rather than hundreds, they are taking no chances.
"There remains within this jurisdiction groups who are hell-bent on attacking democratic principles and we will do all in our power to investigate them," said Detective Superintendent Martin Callinan of the Irish police force.
McKevitt, who is married to the sister of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands who died in 1981, was arrested in early 2001 and had denied both the charges on which he was convicted.
He sacked his legal team in the latter stages of the five-week trial and pledged to take no further part in a "political show trial".
The Real IRA split from the main Irish Republican Army in 1997 after opposing the British province's peace process.
The following August the group detonated a 225-kg car bomb in Omagh on a busy Saturday afternoon.
The prosecution case against McKevitt hinged on evidence by Rupert, who described how he had sat in on Real IRA "army council" meetings with McKevitt as a renewed campaign of violence in Britain and Northern Ireland was being discussed.
McKevitt, he said, had been in favour of an attack that would "be spectacular and overshadow Omagh".
Although McKevitt's defence sought to cast Rupert as an unreliable witness, drawing attention to his shady business past, the court ruled that his testimony was credible.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed at Omagh, said he hoped the tide was now turning in favour of the victims' families, who have yet to see anyone charged with murder in relation to the bombing which occurred five years ago next week.
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