Real IRA leader appeals terror conviction

Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt launched an appeal today against his conviction for directing terrorism by attacking the credibility of a key witness and the non-disclosure of documents.

The 56-year-old from Dundalk, County Louth was sentenced to 20 years in jail in 2003 under new legislation which was introduced in the wake of the Omagh bombing.

At the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin, his defence team outlined the two crucial issues which are at the heart of the 42 grounds of appeal: the credibility of key prosecution witness David Rupert, and the non-disclosure of intelligence documents.

Senior counsel Hugh Hartnett said the credibility of Mr Rupert, an FBI and British secret service agent, was central to the prosecution case against McKevitt.

Rupert was paid $1.25m (€1.1m) to infiltrate the Real IRA and testified in court about McKevitt’s plans to launch terror attacks even more shocking than the 1998 Omagh bombing, which killed 29 people.

McKevitt is one of a number of people being sued in a civil action by the families of those killed in the bombing.

His defence team claimed at his original trial that when Rupert became a police spy for republicans in 1993, he was desperate for cash, his business had collapsed, the Internal Revenue Service was chasing him for $750,000, and police were investigating him for mail fraud.

Mr Hartnett said that the non-disclosure of documents by the prosecution had had serious consequences for the trial.

He questioned why the defence had not been told how Rupert worked as an informer for the New York and New Jersey police in the 1970s, until two weeks before the trial.

He said the FBI agents sent to testify about documents held by the agency on Rupert said they had no knowledge about certain issues.

“Either they were not telling the truth or they did not know of this. Either they were ignorant or they were lying,” he said.

Mr Hartnett said one of the FBI agents, James Krupkowksi, had said that in some cases, he would be willing to defy the rulings of the US Supreme Court.

“I submit that his evidence is valueless procedurally and in fact,” he said.

Mr Hartnett told Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, presiding, that the documentation held by the British and American intelligence services was central to the case.

“The prosecution themselves in this case were misled by the security authorities. This will be shown by documentation but it is very complex,” he said.

McKevitt, dressed in a dark suit, light green shirt and brown tie, listened intently as Mr Hartnett outlined his appeal case.

He smiled once when the barrister mistakenly said the prosecution themselves had no faith in McKevitt’s evidence, when he meant to refer to Rupert.

His wife Bernadette Sands McKevitt, the sister of late IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, was among those in court for the appeal hearing.

There was a heavy police presence both inside and outside the courtroom, with body searches of every person entering.

McKevitt was taken back to Portlaoise Prison with an army and police escort. The appeal is expected to last four days.

At the original trial in the three-judge, non-jury Special Criminal Court in Dublin, he was also convicted of IRA membership and given a six-year sentence to run concurrently.

Judge Richard Johnson found that while the offences for which McKevitt was convicted were outside the date of he Omagh bombing, they were planned and premeditated and contemplated to do serious harm to people. He also said that McKevitt had played a leading role in the Real IRA.