Spy charge man 'risked life to see Beirut hostage'

Sinn Fein’s administration chief Denis Donaldson risked his life to see a Beirut hostage, Brian Keenan, a court heard today.

Donaldson, 52, is accused of being part of an IRA spy ring inside the government’s main offices in Belfast.

Detectives opposing his bail application claim he is a key member of the provisional’s intelligence gathering unit and has formed close links with international terrorist groups, including Basque terrorist movement ETA and the PLO.

But a defence lawyer told the Northern Ireland High Court that a letter backing Donaldson, of Aitnamona Crescent, west Belfast, was submitted by Mr Keenan, who was held hostage during the 1980s.

It said the Sinn Fein man negotiated with the senior Shi’ite spiritual advisor to the Hezbollah group which was holding Mr Keenan, himself from Belfast, hostage.

Mr Keenan said in his letter: “For the whole period of my incarceration, only two human beings put their lives at risk on my behalf.

“One was Terry Waite and the other was Denis Donaldson.”

Donaldson faces five charges connected to an alleged republican espionage plot inside the the Northern Ireland Secretary’s offices at Stormont.

More than 1,200 documents were recovered in a rucksack during a police raid on his home early last month as part of a major security operation which led to the suspension of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing Assembly.

Donaldson was one of four people arrested and charged in connection with suspected IRA spying.

But Seamus Treacey QC, defending, insisted that no fingerprints belonging to Donaldson were found on any of the papers discovered in his house.

He said the Crown could not hope to secure a conviction, adding: “The evidence against this applicant is significantly weaker than the evidence against all the others.”

Mr Treacey added that Donaldson held a firearms certificate, which police had not revoked since the allegations against him first emerged.

He asked: “If police had substantial grounds for believing Mr Donaldson was a member of the Provisional IRA and he was an active member of the IRA’s general headquarters intelligence unit, would the chief constable of Northern Ireland give a firearms certificate to such a person?”

The judge, Lord Justice Nicholson, adjourned the hearing until later today.