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Outrage at double legal aid for Omagh bomb suspects
By Terry Patterson

UNDISGUISED and widespread outrage met last week's disclosure that legal aid had been granted on both sides of the border to defendants in the forthcoming High Court action launched by the families of victims of the Omagh bombing.
It was revealed that Real IRA bomb suspects, Liam Campbell and Michael McKevitt, had both secured legal aid to fight the multi-million pound civil action.
Locally, Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the August 1998 town centre atrocity, said it was a "disgrace", while East Antrim's Ulster Unionist MP, Roy Beggs, said he was "aghast" at the news.
And Kevin Skelton, whose wife, Philomena, also died in the bombing, after initially claiming that his views were unprintable, rapped: "The whole thing is an absolute joke, especially on this side of the border.
"But that's the way it is today no justice for the victims, but all in favour of these characters. We had to raise £2 million by donations from across the world to bring the case.
"The hurtful part is that the British Government is now willing to back people, whom they should have hunted down in the first place, against us.
"Tony Blair is prepared to go to war against Iraq and is quoting terrorism as one of the reasons, but in his own country he is paying terrorists to contest a case brought by the victims of terrorism.
"It is no different from the British Government paying Osama Bin Laden to fight an action if American victims of terrorism were to sue him."
Then the Drumquin man lashed out at the Irish Government which, he said, had denied at a meeting in Omagh that legal aid would be granted.
"We met representatives of Brian Cowen's office at the Silverbirch Hotel and we were told legal aid was not an issue," said Mr. Skelton.
"The next day their Crime Bureau issued Campbell with a bill for 850,000 Euros, which, I felt, underlined the sincerity of the denials, but then this leaked out.
"We have not met since, but another meeting with Mr. Cowen's office is due shortly, and I would imagine that there will be some angry exchanges then and some pointed questioning."
Infuriated
Mr. Gallagher was equally infuriated with developments and he, too, compared the efforts made to mount the action against the financial support McKevitt and Campbell were receiving to fight it.
"It just beggars belief that these people can always circumvent the system and that innocent victims always have to pay," he said.
"We have to raise £2 million to fund our case and yet these people, who the Irish Government has identified as having significant resources, have been granted legal aid."
Meanwhile, Mr. Beggs claimed the true facts had only been put in the public domain after representations had been made to the British Government by his party leader, David Trimble, and himself.
"The Northern Ireland Office has been forced to come clean, and the correspondence that has now been passed to me does not make for pleasant reading," added the MP.
"The fact that the Legal Aid Department in Northern Ireland was aware of the Irish Government's decision to provide funding for Campbell and McKevitt and yet approved the release of British taxpayers' money for repeat funding is almost unbelievable. It is certainly immoral and wrong."
Jonathan Phillips, political director of the Northern Ireland Office, in a letter to Mr. Trimble distancing the government from the decision, said the
government did not involve itself in an applicant's eligibility for legal aid.
"It is a matter for the Legal Aid Department of the Law Society," he explained.
And he went on: "Mr. Beggs has asked a couple of parliamentary questions about communications between the British and Irish authorities but I very much doubt that any such communication has taken place since the assessment of eligibility is properly a matter for the Legal Aid Department."
Mr. Beggs hit back, saying: "Mr. Phillips has displayed an obvious unwillingness to initiate such contact," and disclosing that he intended
writing to Irish Premier, Bertie Ahern, in a bid to illicit information about McKevitt's and Campbell's wealth.
The granting of legal aid in the Republic does not' hinge on an applicant's resources as it does on this side of the border where a means test is applied.
Mr. Phillips pointed out that a false declaration to secure legal aid was a criminal offence, and he said that if anyone had evidence of any of the defendants in the civil action not making a full declaration of their assets the information should be shared with the PSNI and the Legal Aid Department.
McKevitt, 51, is currently on remand at Portlaoise prison on charges of directing terrorism, while Campbell, 38, is serving a jail sentence at the prison for membership of an illegal organisation.
Both have been named in court papers as alleged 'Real IRA' members along with Colm Murphy, Seamus McKenna and Seamus Daly.
To date Murphy, 51, is the only person to have been convicted in connection with Omagh bombing.