February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Last week, McKevitt, 53, of Dundalk, dramatically said he had no choice but to fire his legal team and he refused to take any further part in the proceedings.
McKevitt has denied charges of directing and being a member of the Real IRA dissident group and claims he is being framed.
“I will not participate any further in this political show trial and am now withdrawing myself with my dignity intact,” he told the court.
McKevitt is the first person to face the so-called “godfather” charge of directing terrorism brought in after the 1998 Omagh bombing.
In a scene in the three-judge, no-jury court reminiscent of the early 1970s when IRA defendants refused to recognize it, McKevitt remained in the court under protest after dispensing with his legal team.
McKevitt made his protest on Thursday after several garda witnesses had given surveillance evidence aimed at backing up the testimony of FBI and MI5 spy David Rupert
Rupert, 51, a former U.S. trucking company boss, had been the key prosecution witness during the trial.
McKevitt’s lawyers had tried and failed to have the court discharge itself because the defense had been compromised as a result of a delay in providing him with documentation.
The dismissal of their lawyers by defendants is not unusual in recent years. Gang leader John Gilligan twice changed his legal team in the Special Criminal Court during his trial.
On Friday, McKevitt took his protest a step further. He was brought to the courthouse from Portlaoise Prison but refused to leave his cell.
With no lengthy defense cross-examination of prosecution witnesses and no defense witnesses being called, the trial ended much sooner than had been expected.
The three judges are expected to deliver their verdict on Aug. 6.
CORRECTION
A July 9-15 report in the Echo on the trial in Dublin of alleged Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt, entitled “Chicago reporters hand over Rupert Tapes,” stated that the charge of directing terrorism was linked to the 1998 Omagh bombing. The charge covers the period from Aug. 29, 1999 to March 21, 2001 and does not include the date of the Omagh bombing, which took place in August 1998. The report further stated that McKevitt’s defense counsel charged that the primary prosecution witness, David Rupert, at one point owed $750,000 to the IRA. The court was told that this money was owed to the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS.