A former leading member of the Provisional IRA and prison escaper was allowed by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today to travel to the Middle East to secure the sale of an Irish concrete company for the World Cup in Qatar.
Anthony Sloan was arrested last year and is facing a charge of IRA membership but the court today varied his bail conditions to allow for one trip to the Middle East where he is the intermediary in the sale of a concrete company to the Qataris.
His counsel, Michael Bowman, told the court arrangements have been put in place for the sale of the company but that arrangements are in limbo because Sloan had to surrender his passport as part of his bail.
He said that Mr Sloan needs to travel to Dubai to finalise the sale of the Irish company and this should take 10 days.
Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, said the court would vary the bail to allow the return of Sloan’s passport for one trip to the Middle East. He said the trip should not last more than ten days and gardaí should be given 48 hours' notice of Mr Sloan’s travel itinerary and the passport should be returned to the gardaí within 24 hours of his return.
Mr Sloan (56), a native of Belfast with an address at Ard na Mara, Dundalk, Co Louth, was charged last November with membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA on October 31st last year.
He was one of eight IRA prisoners who escaped from Crumlin Road prison in Belfast in 1981. The day after the escape he was convicted of possession of an M60 machine gun and jailed for 20 years in his absence.
He fled to the Republic where he was later recaptured by gardaí and jailed for eight years. He successfully challenged attempts to extradite him to Northern Ireland and settled in the Republic.
In December 2000 he and the seven other members of the so-called “M60 gang” were given a royal pardon. The eight men were arrested after a shootout in Belfast in 1980 with British troops, during which SAS Captain Herbert Westmacott was killed.