Bail terms agreed for dissident republican

A dissident republican wanted in Lithuania to face terror and weapons charges will spend the weekend behind bars before being…

A dissident republican wanted in Lithuania to face terror and weapons charges will spend the weekend behind bars before being released on bail, a court ruled tonight.

Bail terms were agreed for convicted Real IRA member Liam Campbell but will not be approved until Monday afternoon after a €50,000 surety has been verified.

The 46-year-old, who is wanted in the Baltic state on terrorism charges and for attempting to get weapons, ammunition and explosives, including detonators and timers, appeared before the High Court in Dublin for the brief hearing.

It is alleged he conspired with three others between the end of 2006 and 2007 to obtain and smuggle weapons.

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His brother Michael Campbell is behind bars in Lithuania linked to the same trafficking racket. Irmantas Mikelionis, deputy head prosecutor of Vilnius, said investigators hope to bring a case against him in March.

Campbell, who is among five dissident republicans being sued by relatives of the victims of the Omagh bomb for £10 million (€15 million), plans to contest the European arrest warrant.

The court ruled he must hand over his own bond of €100 euro and that an independent surety of €50,000 must also be lodged.

He will have to sign on at Dundalk Garda station daily, live at his Co Louth home, surrender his passport, and undertake not to apply for a new passport.

The terms of bail were agreed between the parties and the case was adjourned to next Monday afternoon - when Mr Justice Michael Peart will approve it.

The judge said the case would then be entered in the court’s diary for a full hearing.

Campbell, of Upper Faughart, Dundalk, was detained by members of the Garda extradition Unit at a car park in Dundalk yesterday and was escorted to the High Court where he was remanded in custody.

The State had said it needed to have discussions with the Lithuanian authorities, while Campbell’s solicitor James McGuill argued the reason for remanding him in custody was unsatisfactory.

In 2004, the non-jury Special Criminal Court convicted Campbell of two separate charges of membership of an unlawful organisation.

He was jailed for four years on both charges, to run consecutively, but the final 18 months of the second sentence was suspended for time already spent in custody.

It is understood he was freed early last year.

Although no one has ever been convicted for the Real IRA attack in Omagh, which killed 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins, six families are pursuing a civil action.

The landmark case - the first of its kind by victims of terrorism - is being taken against Michael McKevitt, the alleged leader of the Real IRA, Campbell, said to be his number two, Colm Murphy, Seamus Daly and Seamus McKenna.

Meanwhile, allegations that vital intelligence about the Omagh bomb outrage was held back were rejected today in an official report.

Sir Peter Gibson, the Intelligence Services Commissioner, said any information on the bombers taken from telephone intercepts monitored by the British government’s listening station GCHQ was passed to police but could not have prevented the August 1998 atrocity.

PA