Ó Muireagáin rejects claim of IRA links

THE Irishman held in Israel on suspicion of training Palestinian bombers yesterday rejected claims he was a former IRA member.

Seán Ó Muireagáin, 42, from west Belfast, finally arrived back in the city after a five-day prison ordeal.

Even though he admitted serving two years in prison for handling stolen goods, the Irish language expert and journalist dismissed allegations linking him to the Provisional IRA. In an attack on the Israeli authorities, he said: “Everybody seems to have taken their word and all of a sudden I was the bomber and now I’m an IRA man. It’s not true.”

Asked if he had ever been involved in the republican movement, he added: “I have not.” Mr Ó Muireagáin was subjected to his ordeal after being the victim of mistaken identity. He was arrested near Ramallah last Saturday on suspicion of training Palestinian forces in explosives techniques.

But after the Israelis realised they had got the wrong man, he was deported to London and finally returned to Belfast yesterday for an emotional reunion with his distraught family. At a press conference in west Belfast, he told of his shock when he was detained and accused of being involved in a bomb-making plot.

“They just kept asking me about bombs and making bombs and training people to make bombs. I was flabbergasted.” Describing how he had travelled on his own passport, which clearly stated his identity, Mr Ó Muireagáin asked: “what kind of bomb-maker would I be?”

He said he was not physically abused by his captors, but when he was arrested on his way to Bethlehem he was stripped naked and blindfolded in the middle of the road. “It is a bit humiliating. You know there’s traffic driving past and it was a really weird feeling.”

He was in no doubt that information had been supplied to the Israelis by British intelligence.

He said that when he was being interrogated about being a bomber they came into the room with around six pages in English.

“That’s when they started hitting me with ‘we know who you are’.”

He said the Israelis mentioned little details about his family that he knew must have come from security services in Britain.

Asked if he blamed anyone for his ordeal, he said the Israelis were trying to intimidate foreign nationals out of the West Bank to stop them from finding out what was going on.

He added that there were another 11 people waiting to be deported and he was only able to leave because he was able to pay for his flight home.

Mr Ó Muireagáin said he had not received an apology for what had happened to him and did not expect to be given one.