SF man 'set up IRA links with ETA and PLO'
Sinn Fein’s administration chief at Stormont headed the IRA’s intelligence unit, establishing links with ETA, the PLO and other worldwide terrorist groups, a court heard today.
Denis Donaldson, 52, was also invited to the wedding of a chef wanted for questioning in connection with the seizure of informants’ files during a raid on Special Branch offices in Belfast earlier this year, it was claimed.
A senior detective opposing a bail application by Donaldson told the Northern Ireland High Court police feared he would continue spying for the IRA if he was freed.
Superintendent Roy Suitters said: “There is a serious risk he may not turn up for trial.
“He has travelled widely throughout the world establishing links with other groups and organisations.”
But defence lawyer Seamus Treacey QC insisted there was no evidence linking his client to a terror network.
Donaldson, of Aitnamona Crescent, West Belfast, was one of four people arrested last month by police probing an alleged IRA espionage plot inside the British government’s main buildings at Stormont where former Secretary of State John Reid had his office.
A rucksack discovered at Donaldson’s home contained 1,218 pages of documentation, with about 700 believed to have come from the Northern Ireland Office, the court heard.
Among the papers recovered were top-secret letters to and from the Taoiseach, the British Prime Minister, the Secretary of State, the Ministry of Defence, Police Ombudsman and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
One also related to Colombia, where three republicans are due to stand trial early next month accused of training with Farc guerrillas.
Correspondence to David Trimble’s Ulster Unionist Party and the nationalist SDLP was also discovered, it was claimed.
The detective told the court Donaldson was among a tight-knit group of no more than six people with access to classified documents still believed to be missing.
Mr Suitters added that Special Branch had briefed him that he was a senior member of the IRA’s intelligence wing.
A crown lawyer said Donaldson was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in February 1972 after being found guilty of a plot to bomb a distillery and undisclosed British government buildings.
During the 1980s it was alleged the Sinn Fein administrator toured Europe giving talks on the IRA’s H-Block hunger strike campaign inside the Maze Prison.
In August 1981 he was arrested at Orly Airport in Paris after arriving from Beirut on a false passport, the QC said.
Claiming Donaldson had forged close links with other terrorists, he added: “He has connections with groups and organisations in Madrid, Beirut, El Salvador and Italy.”
During the early 1990s it was alleged the Sinn Fein man travelled extensively in the United States campaigning on behalf of Noraid, the IRA’s fund-raising operation in America.
With senior detectives now linking the raid on a suspected intelligence gathering operation at Stormont to the break-in at Castlereagh police complex on St Patrick’s Night in March this year – also blamed on the IRA – the court was told of Donaldson’s alleged links to a man wanted in connection with that raid.
An application seeking the extradition of Larry Zaitschek, a former chef at the barracks, from the US is with the Director of Public Prosecutions.
It was claimed an invitation to Zaitschek’s wedding and a photo of Donaldson with the cook was found by police during searches of the republican’s home.
The bail application hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.
