UH/1927

Supreme Court reserves judgement in McKevitt appeal

FOLLOWING a four-day hearing last week the Supreme Court has reserved judgement on an appeal by Co Louth man Michael McKevitt against his conviction for directing terrorist activities for the Real IRA.
In July 2006 McKevitt was given leave to appeal to the Irish Republic's Supreme Court. McKevitt claims he did not get a fair trial because his legal team had not been supplied with all the information in relation to a key witness, FBI agent David Rupert.
McKevitt had been convicted by the Republic of Ireland's non-jury Special Criminal Court on August 6, 2003 of two terrorist offences: "Membership of an illegal organisation" (the Real IRA) and "directing terrorism" between August 29, 1999 and October 23, 2000.
He was the first person to be convicted of the latter offence, introduced in the aftermath of the Omagh bombing.
The prosecution case was based on the testimony of an American FBI informant, David Rupert.
McKevitt appealed his convictions to the Court of Criminal Appeal, arguing that Rupert's testimony was unreliable since he had been paid large sums of money for his role as an informant (a total of £750,000 from the FBI and MI5), and because of Rupert's long criminal record.
In December 2005, the court rejected these arguments and said that Rupert was a credible witness. Both of McKevitt's convictions were upheld.
The five-judge Supreme Court comprising the Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray; Ms Justice Susan Denham; Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman; Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan and Mr Justice Neil Fennelly, began hearing the appeal amid tight security last Tuesday.
McKevitt, who boycotted his original trial for some time, was in court.
His appeal to the Supreme Court centres on the issues concerning the reliability of Mr Rupert, who infiltrated the Real IRA and attended Real IRA army council meetings where he alleged McKevitt was present.
When McKevitt was convicted by the Special Criminal Court in 2003 to 20 years imprisonment, the judges stressed that the offences did not relate to the Omagh bombing but related to a later period.