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07/08/2003
McKevitt receives 20-year sentence
The leader of the Real IRA, Michael McKevitt, has been sentenced to 20 years in jail at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today.
Yesterday McKevitt was found guilty of directing terrorism and of being a member of an illegal organisation.
The case brought against 53-year-old Michael McKevitt, from Black Rock, Co Louth, is the first under the Republic's directing terrorism laws. Although the charge has no previous legal precedent in the Republic, the Special Criminal Court handed out the maximum possible jail term under the provisions of the Irish state’s recently enacted anti-terrorism legislation.
In the north, loyalist paramilitary leader Johnny Adair was sentenced to 16 years for directing terrorism. Although Adair was subsequently released on licence in 2000 under the auspices of the Good Friday Agreement’s early release scheme, he was returned to prison later the same year after breeching the terms of his licence.
In Dublin on Wednesday, in a statement from the Special Criminal Court Mr Justice Johnson stressed that McKevitt was charged with and found guilty of offences that occurred after the bombing of Omagh in 1998.
McKevitt, who denied the charges, is to mount an appeal against the conviction. However, relatives of the Omagh bomb victims have welcomed the verdict.
The bombing of Omagh town centre by the Real IRA in 1998 killed 29 civilians.
(SP)
Yesterday McKevitt was found guilty of directing terrorism and of being a member of an illegal organisation.
The case brought against 53-year-old Michael McKevitt, from Black Rock, Co Louth, is the first under the Republic's directing terrorism laws. Although the charge has no previous legal precedent in the Republic, the Special Criminal Court handed out the maximum possible jail term under the provisions of the Irish state’s recently enacted anti-terrorism legislation.
In the north, loyalist paramilitary leader Johnny Adair was sentenced to 16 years for directing terrorism. Although Adair was subsequently released on licence in 2000 under the auspices of the Good Friday Agreement’s early release scheme, he was returned to prison later the same year after breeching the terms of his licence.
In Dublin on Wednesday, in a statement from the Special Criminal Court Mr Justice Johnson stressed that McKevitt was charged with and found guilty of offences that occurred after the bombing of Omagh in 1998.
McKevitt, who denied the charges, is to mount an appeal against the conviction. However, relatives of the Omagh bomb victims have welcomed the verdict.
The bombing of Omagh town centre by the Real IRA in 1998 killed 29 civilians.
(SP)
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Omagh Families Will Fight McKevitt Appeal
Relatives of those murdered in the Omagh bombing have said they will fight any appeal by the man found responsible of masterminding the 1998 attack. Earlier this week the families won a landmark civil action against Real IRA chief Michael McKevitt and three other men.
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