Leader of dissident IRA group convicted of directing terrorism

The alleged leader of a dissident Irish Republican Army (IRA) faction responsible for Northern Ireland's deadliest bombing was convicted yesterday of directing terrorism and membership of an outlawed organization.

Three at Dublin's Special Criminal Court found Michael McKevitt, reputed leader of the so-called Real IRA, guilty on the two charges. Sentencing was set for today.

McKevitt, 53, who earlier had dismissed his defense lawyers, did not appear in court but announced later he planned to appeal the verdict.

The prosecution's key witness was David Rupert, an American trucker who was recruited by the FBI in 1994 to penetrate Irish extremist groups in Ireland and the US.

The Real IRA had joined with another dissident group to set off a car bomb in Omagh, Northern Ireland, on Aug. 15, 1998, killing 29 people and wounding more than 300.

McKevitt the first person to be convicted in Ireland of directing terrorism, an offense created in law following the Omagh attack.

In announcing the verdict, Justice Richard Johnson said McKevitt was convicted of offenses committed after the attack.

McKevitt his legal team only after it had thoroughly cross-examined Rupert, suggesting he was a serial criminal who would do anything -- including lying about McKevitt -- for money.

Johnson, however, said was clear that Rupert "had a very considerable knowledge of the fact to which he testified."

Histories the Sinn Fein-IRA movement identify McKevitt as a longtime officer in the IRA, which killed about 1,800 people during a 27-year campaign to abolish Northern Ireland as British territory.

His wife, Bernadette, was the sister of Bobby Sands, an IRA man who was elected to the British parliament while on a hunger strike in 1981. Sands died after a 65-day fast.

McKevitt formed the Real IRA in protest at the IRA's decision in 1997 to abandon its campaign in favor of peace talks that produced the Good Friday agreement of 1998. The group bombed more than a dozen Northern Ireland towns that year, culminating in the atrocity at Omagh.

The group resumed attacks in 2000 but with little effect. Most of its operations failed either because the weapons were poorly designed or because informers and surveillance allowed police to intercept the threats.

Several relatives of the Omagh victims were in court yesterday.

"I'm absolutely delighted the verdict has gone the way it has," said Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Aiden was killed at Omagh. "He [McKevitt] cannot orchestrate another atrocity."

the mole

Rupert, a 51-year-old native of Potsdam, New York, was recruited by the FBI in 1994 to win the trust of Irish extremists. Posing as a potential source of Irish-American money and smuggled weapons in the 1999 meeting, said he and McKevitt "immediately clicked in conversation" and met more than 20 times.

"I liked Mr. McKevitt. He was very personable," Rupert testified. He has been living secretly -- with his fourth wife, Maureen -- in a witness protection program since McKevitt's arrest in March 2001.

Rupert he received US$8,500 from the FBI in 1996 to lease an Irish border pub and adjoining trailer park that housed IRA figures on the run from the law in Northern Ireland.

Rupert the FBI initially tried to hand responsibility for his intelligence reports to Ireland's police force, the Garda Siochana, but a local officer wasn't willing to pay as much as Rupert wanted.

With the pub business going broke, Rupert returned to the US and negotiated a February 1997 contract with the FBI that paid him up to US$2,500 a month plus expenses. Rupert said he considered this "extremely minimal" given the risks.