Lithuanian verdict over RIRA weapons claim soon

CO LOUTH man Michael Campbell will find out next month whether he is to serve 16 years in a Lithuanian jail for allegedly trying to buy weapons in the Baltic state for the Real IRA.

At yesterday’s final defence hearing of his two-year trial, Mr Campbell reiterated that he had no connection with the Real IRA – in which his brother Liam is suspected of being a senior member – and that he had been entrapped by British, Irish and Lithuanian intelligence agencies.

“I am not guilty,” Mr Campbell (39) said of charges of attempted arms smuggling, supporting a terrorist group and illegal possession of weapons.

“During my entire stay in Lithuania, when I was recorded 24 hours a day, the prosecutor did not even get one recording where I was talking with anybody about terrorist acts,” he said.

Lithuania is seeking the extradition of Liam Campbell and Brendan McGuigan of Omeath, but Michael Campbell insisted that they were not involved in his visits to Lithuania, which resulted in his arrest in a sting operation in January 2008.

“At no point has the prosecutor offered any evidence to back that,” he told the court. He had been joking when in a recorded conversation with another suspect they seemed to talk about using the weapons in London. “To make a big story about a joke is really unfair,” he added.

Judge Arunas Kisielius said a verdict would be delivered on October 21st. The prosecution has requested a sentence of 16 years in jail.

Mr Campbell does not deny visiting Lithuania to seek weapons, but says it was a business deal that had nothing to do with the Real IRA.

He says he was persuaded to embark on the venture by Robert Michael Jardine – who has been revealed to be an agent of Britain’s MI5. The two men knew each other for several years and smuggled cigarettes together, Mr Campbell said.

His lawyers claim the entire prosecution case is based on the testimony of Mr Jardine, the Lithuanian intelligence agents who pretended to be weapons dealers, and a Garda officer who testified that he believed Mr Campbell was linked to the Real IRA.

“Jardine suggested this gun business, and Michael came here for that – for business, not for the Real IRA,” said defence lawyer Ingrida Botyriene. “There is absolutely no evidence linking him to the Real IRA.”

Ms Botyriene likened the case to that of Desmond Kearns, whom Belfast crown court last year cleared of allegedly smuggling guns for the Real IRA when it found that he had been entrapped by an MI5 agent. Two other men were later found guilty and jailed in that case.

“All the evidence we have makes us think this was not entrapment,” said prosecutor Gedgaudas Norkunas. “If these criminal acts had not been discovered in a timely way, weapons would have been acquired from other sources and used for terrorist purposes.”