BT/0928

Trio still quizzed by gardai on Omagh

TWO men and a woman were still being questioned today by gardai investigating the Omagh bombing.
The three are being detained under the Offences Against the State Act which empowers the gardai to hold them for up to 72 hours without charge.
One of the men was detained in the Faughnan area of Co Louth last Saturday evening. He must be charged or released today.
The other man, a suspected member of the Real IRA, was detained near Dundalk yesterday.
The woman, who is from Dundalk, was arrested in Dublin last Sunday morning. Her period of detention will end tomorrow morning, unless she is charged with an offence.
Three other men detained in garda swoops in Co Louth at the weekend have been released without charge.
Gardai are continuing a search for the former Provisional IRA quarter-master who defected and set up the Real IRA. He has been missing from his home in Co Louth for over a week.
Despite the ceasefire called by the Real IRA shortly after it admitted responsibility for the Omagh atrocity, Garda intelligence reports indicate that a number of its members are associating with other republican dissidents from the Continuity IRA and the INLA.
It was revealed yesterday that gardai have called in Interpol to help track down a man they believe was behind the atrocity.
The man, understood to be a former Provisional IRA quartermaster has disappeared from his Co Louth home.
The special team of experienced gardai set up to investigate the bombing has been painstakingly building up evidence against him during the past six months.
A source close to the investigation revealed today that they had contacted Interpol - the European intelligence agency - for help in finding the man.