Fingerprints belonging to a man linked to alleged republican intelligence gathering inside the Northern Ireland Office were not found on incriminating documents, a court heard today.
As Mr Ciaran Kearney (31) appeared on five charges of possessing information of use to terrorists, his lawyer argued there was no case against him.
Mr Kearney is the fourth person accused in connection with the police raids on homes in north and west Belfast and Sinn Féin's Stormont offices.
A detective inspector told Belfast Magistrates' Court out of more than 1,000 documents seized during the searches, Mr Kearney's fingerprints have only been found on three pages in bundles contained in a bag confiscated during the swoops.
One of these pages was among personal information on loyalist suspects which the officer said did not contain material that would have been subject to a charge itself.
The other two pages were in a document on an unnamed unionist political party that was not in itself an incriminating paper, the detective told the court.
Mr Kevin Winters, a solicitor for Mr Kearney, of Commedagh Drive in Belfast, claimed that police did not have enough evidence to connect his client to the charges.
He said: "The fingerprints were recovered on documentation, none of which was incriminating evidence itself."
Urging the magistrate to release the researcher with a west Belfast community council, he added: "Mere suspicion by police cannot amount to the justification for these charges."
But insisting the arguments should be saved until any trial begins, the magistrate rejected his appeal and remanded Mr Kearney until November 8th.
PA