McKevitt appeal begins

The appeal by convicted Real IRA leader Michael Mc Kevitt against his conviction has opened at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin.

Mc Kevitt (aged 54), of Beech Park, Blackrock, Co Louth was jailed for 20 years by the Special Criminal Couret after he was convicted of directing the activities of a terrorist organisation between August 29, 1999 and October 23, 2000. He was the first person to be convicted in the Republic of the offence which was brought in after the Real IRA bomb attack in Omagh in 1998 in which 29 people died.