SF's Stormont chief has key IRA role, court told

SINN FEIN'S administration chief at Stormont is at the head of the IRA's intelligence unit establishing worldwide links with other terror groups, a court heard yesterday.

Denis Donaldson, 52, was remanded in custody after a police probe into alleged IRA espionage inside the government seized more than 1,000 documents during raids at Parliament Buildings, Belfast, and republican homes in the west of the city last month.

But at his bail application in the High Court yesterday, it was claimed that Donaldson has forged close relationships with groups including ETA and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation during visits to Spain and Beirut as well as to El Salvador and Italy.