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Man jailed for Real IRA membership

A MAN being sued by relatives of the Omagh bomb victims was jailed in Dublin yesterday for being a member of the Real IRA.
Liam Campbell, 42, was found guilty of two counts of being a member of an unlawful organisation styling itself the IRA.
The leading dissident republican denied the charges relating to two dates, October 3, 2000 and July 29, 2001.
He was arrested in Bettystown, Co Meath, in July 2001 and jailed for five years that October.
The conviction was quashed by the Court of Criminal Appeal earlier this year but Campbell was re-tried on both the original and a subsequent charge last week.
He was jailed for four years on both charges, to run consecutively, with the final 18 months suspended. The sentence was backdated to May 1, 2001.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was one of 29 killed in the 1998 Omagh atrocity, condemned the sentence, saying it did not reflect the seriousness of the Real IRA's activities.
"The Irish Government's sentencing policy is too weak," he said. "Campbell will be out in a couple of years - such soft sentences will not act as a deterrent to terrorists."
Mr Justice Richard Johnson, presiding over the three-judge Special Criminal Court in Dublin, said he had taken into account Campbell's previous good record and the fact he was married with two young children.
He described the offences as "extremely serious" but expressed appreciation that the prosecution's evidence had not been contested.
The court heard that the second charge related to a period when Campbell was already on bail.
Campbell, from Dundalk, is one of five men being sued in a landmark £10 million (14 million euro) civil action by relatives of the Omagh bomb victims.
Seamus Daly was jailed for three and a half years in March after pleading guilty to membership of the Real IRA.
Michael McKevitt and Colm Murphy, the only ones to be convicted in connection with the Omagh bombing, are also both serving sentences in the Irish Republic for IRA membership.
Murphy, a Dundalk-based builder and publican, was sentenced to 14 years in January 2002 for plotting the Omagh attack.
Real IRA leader McKevitt was jailed for 20 years last August for directing terrorism.
Solicitors acting for the Omagh Victims Civil Action Group served writs on each of the five suspects in 2002.
The case is due to be heard in Belfast early next year.