BT/0866

Trial date to be set for McKevitt

THE alleged leader of the Real IRA was due to appear in court today where a date would be set for his trial for directing terrorism.
Michael McKevitt (51) from Blackrock, Co Louth, was appearing at Dublin's anti-terrorist Special Criminal Court after being the first person to be charged with the offence in the Republic. McKevitt, on remand in Portlaoise prison, is one of five men being sued by relatives of the 29 people who were killed in the 1998 Real IRA bombing of Omagh. The trial, which will be one of the most dramatic in recent Irish history, should last for at least six weeks at the court which sits with three judges, but no jury. The case is expected to begin in February.
But the defence is set to make allegations that the intelligence and security services in the US and Britain made multi-million pound payments to an agent who infiltrated the Real IRA, David Rupert.
The defence will allege that Rupert, the key prosecution witness against McKevitt, was paid almost £4m by the FBI and British intelligence - initially as expenses but eventually in the form of a 'salary', according to recent reports.
Rupert began passing information about republican terrorists to the FBI in 1994 and is said to have been reporting directly to MI5 by 1997.
He is now living with his wife Maureen Browne on a US witness protection programme.
The trial, which was initially due to begin this summer, was adjourned after defence lawyers raised concerns about disclosure of documents.
McKevitt, who is married to Bernadette Sands, sister of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, was arrested last May.
On Friday, lawyers representing the relatives of those killed when a Real IRA bomb exploded in Omagh on August 15, 1998, delivered writs to McKevitt and four other men, suing them for damages in a historic civil legal action.