Former IRA prison leader remanded in custody
A former IRA leader in the Maze prison in the North was remanded into custody today on charges linked to a police investigation into a murder outside a Belfast bar.
Padraic Wilson was accused of IRA membership and addressing a meeting encouraging support for the organisation.
A detective told Belfast Magistrates’ Court that Wilson (aged 53) took part in a meeting with the sisters of Robert McCartney (aged 33) who was stabbed to death outside the pub in 2005.
The court was told police were not connecting him to the murder.
Wilson was the leader of IRA prisoners in the Maze in the late 1990s.
He was remanded in custody after police expressed fears the political manager would intimidate witnesses, a claim denied by his lawyer Peter Madden.
