February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — Republican dissident Michael McKevitt is expected to seek bail this week after he became the first person to ever appear in the Special Criminal Court on the so-called Godfather of Terrorism charge of directing the activities of an illegal organization.
McKevitt, who’s 51 and is from Beech Park, Blackrock, Dundalk, Co. Louth, faces a life sentence if he is found guilty.
The charge was one of five "draconian" new offenses rushed through the Dail in an emergency recall sitting in September 1998, within weeks of the Real IRA’s Omagh bomb atrocity, which killed 29 and injured over 200.
McKevitt was also charged with membership of an unlawful organization calling itself the IRA.
Under the series of new charges brought in under the amended Offenses Against the State Act, suspects can be convicted of membership of an unlawful organization on the evidence of senior gardai, if there is corroborating evidence.
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They also removed a suspect’s right to silence and allowed the non-jury court to draw inferences from a failure to answer questions. There are provisions to order homes, lands and businesses to be seized.
McKevitt, Bernadette Sands McKevitt and two other men, were all arrested by armed detectives in County Louth last Thursday. When McKevitt appeared in the Special Criminal Court late on Friday, the other three were released.
The 32 County Sovereignty Movement described the arrest and charging of McKevitt as a transparent attempt to suppress republicans and political dissent at a time of growing dissatisfaction with the peace process.
The group also criticized the arrest of Sands McKevitt and said there was a campaign to vilify and intimidate the McKevitt family.