The man arrested and questioned for five days by the Israeli security service arrived home in Belfast yesterday and firmly denied any accusation made against him.
Mr Seán Ó Muireagáin (42), an Irish language activist and reporter for Lá, the daily newspaper, addressed a packed press conference in west Belfast and detailed his arrest on July 12th and captivity.
He suggested that had the media in Ireland questioned the Israeli version of events surrounding his detention, he might not have been held for so long.
He denied links to the republican movement and membership of the IRA, and said he knew nothing of bomb-making. He also denied serving a prison term after his involvement in an IRA robbery as Israel has alleged. He confirmed, however, he had served a two-year sentence for handling stolen goods but said this was not linked to the IRA.
Mr Ó Muireagáin insisted he had been in the Middle East in connection with a Palestinian support group and to establish an exchange programme between schools in the area and Belfast.
He was detained by the Shin Bet security service last Saturday on suspicion of being in the region to help Palestinian bombers in explosive techniques. It said in a statement that it had received intelligence about him and made the arrest.
Shin Bet admitted on Wednesday it had got the wrong man. Mr Ó Muireagáin left Israel voluntarily and yesterday paid for his air ticket to London, where he was questioned by the Metropolitan police before completing his journey to Belfast.
He told reporters: "They just kept asking me about bombs and making bombs, and training people to make bombs. I was flabbergasted."
He added he agreed to take a polygraph lie-detector test: "It was about 20 to 30 questions and at the end they went, 'OK, so you're not the bomber, you must be something else'." Questioned about the allegations of paramilitary activities, he said bluntly: "It's not true." Asked if he was ever a member of the IRA, he said: "I have not."
He suggested that the media had taken Israel's claims against him at face value. "Everybody seems to have taken their word and all of a sudden I was the bomber and now I'm an IRA man. If you had have questioned it in the first place I might not have been in prison."
He said he had travelled to Israel on his own British passport and gone through Ben Gurion airport just like everyone else. "What kind of bomber would I be?" he asked. He spoke of his arrest and alleged he was blindfolded and strip-searched in public on a busy road near Bethlehem. He said he was then taken to a concrete cell with constant bright lighting and only a thin piece of foam and a single blanket for a bed. He said his captors did not physically mistreat him, but alleged that the timing of his meals and questioning caused sleep deprivation.
He also said he was denied access to legal representation and to the British diplomatic service.
He said that despite it being established that he was being held and interrogated in a case of mistaken identity he was still kept for a further three days in the dungeon-like cell and questioned by up to five members of the Israeli security services.
He added: "They still wouldn't let me talk to a solicitor and they still wouldn't let me see the British Consulate. I couldn't understand what was going on because I was totally in the dark." Asked why he travelled on a British rather than an Irish passport, he said simply: "I'm entitled to one."
He believes that information had been supplied to the Israelis by the British intelligence agencies. He backed up his allegation adding that his interrogators referred to pages written in English rather than Hebrew. "That's when they started hitting me with 'we know who you are'." He also claimed that Israel is trying to intimidate foreign nationals out of the West Bank and to hide the truth of what is happening to Palestinians.
He said he was embarrassed by the entire affair, pointing out that until last week he could walk along the Falls Road and talk to people he knew just like everyone else. "I'm not going to be able to do this any more," he said. "They have turned my life upside down," he added, claiming he was more petrified at attending the press conference than he was being questioned by the Israelis.