MAN IS CHARGED WITH SUPPLYING BOMB CAR
Man is charged with supplying bomb car
Court for accused suspected of involvement in Omagh
BY JOHNNY CALDWELL
A CO Louth man was last night charged with supplying the car used by the Real IRA to plant the Omagh bomb.
The 34-year-old from the Dundalk area was arrested in Newry on Monday. He is to appear before Enniskillen Magistrates today.
He will face charges that, between August 11 and 16,1998, he supplied a maroon Vauxhall Cavalier which the dissident republican group used to carry out the single worst atrocity of the Troubles.
Twenty-nine people, including a woman pregnant with twins, were killed and scores injured by the 500lb bomb when it exploded on a busy shopping street in the Co Tyrone town on August 15, 1998.
The only man brought to trial over the 1998 slaughter was freed on bail last month after winning an appeal against his conviction.
Colm Murphy, 51, from Dundalk, was jailed for 14 years in 2002 for conspiracy to cause the explosion.
But the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin set aside the conviction on January 28 and ordered a re-trial on two grounds relating to the evidence of detectives at his original trial.
Murphy's release came despite a passionate appeal by Laurence Rush - whose wife Libby was killed in the explosion - to the three appeal judges to keep him locked up.
No-one has yet been charged with committing the murders in Omagh.
This latest charge comes just days after senior officers stressed that the investigation into the Real IRA atrocity was still ongoing, and that some 500 lines of inquiry still had to be checked out by detectives from both the PSNI and Garda.
Relatives of some of the victims have launched a civil action against the five men they suspect of carrying out the mass murder.
Michael McKevitt, Seamus Daly, Seamus McKenna, Liam Campbell and Colin Murphy are being sued by the Omagh Victims Civil Action Group for £14 million.
Despite lengthy delays, the group still hope their landmark case will be heard at the High Court in Belfast later this year.
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