| Despite multiple instances in which the star paid witness has perjured himself during the course of the eight-week show trial, three bewigged Special Courts judges have deemed Agent Rupert's multi-million dollars testimony to be factual and worth the price. As a result an innocent man is now facing years behind prison bars away from his home and family. |
| Irish Independent 08 07 03 McKevitt was Real IRA boss Liz Walsh REAL IRA leader Michael McKevitt yesterday became the first person in the history of the State to be convicted of directing a terrorist organisation. The Special Criminal Court in Dublin found the 53-year-old Co Louth man guilty of directing the activities of an organisation styling itself Oglaigh na hEireann (the Real IRA) between August 29, 1999 and October 23, 2000 under new legislation introduced after the Omagh bombing. He was also convicted of membership of the same organisation. The court noted the dates on both indictments were outside that of the Omagh bombing. Michael McKevitt was not present in court when the verdict was read out, having refused to come out of the holding cell in the non-jury court, despite a direction from the court to do so. In its 43-page judgment, the court accepted the evidence of key prosecution witness, David Rupert, the FBI and MI5 agent who testified that Michael McKevitt was the leader of the Real IRA. Mr Justice Richard Johnson, presiding, said the court was satisfied Mr Rupert was a "very truthful witness" who had considerable knowledge of the republican movement and who referred to people by name. The witness knew the whereabouts of Mr McKevitt's house and other houses at Oaklands Park, Dundalk and Greenore Road, also Dundalk, where he said he (Rupert) attended engineers' meetings of the Real IRA and one army council meeting. "Overall he had very considerable knowledge of the facts to which he testified," the court noted. The court said it was particularly struck by the witness's ability to recall, on day four and on day 19 of the trial, the seating arrangements of a meeting in the Four Seasons Hotel in Monaghan, the first time he met Michael McKevitt. Referring to the "considerable amounts of money the witness has received and continues to receive" from the FBI and MI5, Mr Justice Johnson pointed out that David Rupert was a "contracted and paid agent of the FBI". He was not a supergrass or an informer and "is and can be described as a witness under protection". During the trial, it emerged that Mr Rupert has received £1.25m for infiltrating dissident republican groups and has entered into negotiations with US journalists to write a book, for which he hopes to receive up to $1m. The court said the defence sought to discredit the witness and show him to be unreliable and untruthful. However, in the court's opinion, there was "no proof the witness offered any deliberate false words". In assessing their overall opinion of Mr Rupert, the judges took into account the demeanour of the witness and his testimony under 11 days cross-examination designed to test the witness's recall. The court said it looked for corroboration to support Mr Rupert's testimony and pointed to the evidence of a number of gardai. It paid particular reference to evidence from gardai from the National Surveillance Unit, Det Sgt Healy, Garda O'Brien and Garda McGuigan who placed David Rupert at various times in the company of Mr McKevitt. The court rejected the suggestion "Rupert and the accused Michael McKevitt never met." Mr Justice Johnson said the court was satisfied "Rupert's evidence relating to the instructions given to him by the accused constitutes directing within the meaning of the section and is open to no other interpretation." McKevitt declined to come up from the holding cells of the Special Criminal Court to hear the verdict and instead sent up a handwritten note, which was not read out. On the membership charge, the court accepted the evidence of Chief Superintendent Michael Finnegan that the accused was a member of an illegal organisation on the relevant dates. The court said it was satisfied to convict the accused of membership on that evidence alone, but that Mr Rupert's evidence also supported that of Chief Supt Finnegan. McKevitt, of Beech Park, Blackrock, Dundalk, Co Louth denied both charges at his six-week trial, which concluded at the end of July.
After the verdict, Detective Supt Diarmuid O'Sullivan, of the Special Detective Unit, told the court McKevitt was a former quartermaster general of the Provisional IRA. |