Anger as judge rules Real IRA not illegal

OUTRAGED Omagh bomb victims last night hit out at a judge’s ruling that the terror group behind the atrocity were not an illegal organisation.

The British Government immediately pledged to challenge the landmark assessment of the Real IRA.

Mr Justice Girvan delivered his verdict at Belfast Crown Court as he cleared four men of membership of the dissident republican faction.

He told Belfast Crown Court yesterday "that the Real Irish Republican Army is not a proscribed organisation for the purposes of Section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000".

Under that section of the act, an organisation is proscribed only if it is listed under schedule 2 of the act or operates under the same name as a listed organisation.

While the IRA itself is named, the judge said: "Schedule 2 of the act does not include any organisation called or known as the Real Irish Republican Army."

Such prosecutions and convictions, however, can still continue in the south after the Supreme Court in Dublin threw out a similar legal argument.

The ruling stunned Michael Gallagher, whose son, Aiden, was among 29 people murdered by the August 1998 Real IRA attack on Omagh the worst single outrage in Northern Ireland's troubles.

Mr Gallagher said: "This is an organisation that's hell-bent on creating death and devastation. It just leaves you without words that something like this can happen."

Although the IRA is contained on a list of outlawed groups, Mr Justice Girvan stressed that the relevant legislation does not include any organisation called or known as the Real Irish Republican Army.

His decision means anyone attached to the dissident group cannot be convicted of Real IRA membership alone.

Anxious government officials were last night beginning moves to contest the development.

A Northern Ireland Office spokesman confirmed: "The government is very concerned at this ruling and the Director of Public Prosecutions is forwarding a report to the Attorney General with a view to an appeal.

"The Government is clear that RIRA should be a proscribed organisation."

The Real IRA split from the Provisionals in 1997 during a bitter fallout over Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness's involvement in the developing Northern Ireland peace process.

Its notoriety was sealed by the Omagh massacre and, since then, its top men have been jailed in Ireland for membership.

Real IRA chief Liam Campbell was sentenced to eight years in prison only last week.

In May 2001, the US State Department designated the grouping as a foreign terrorist organisation and froze its financial assets.