7 face terror charges in N Ireland

20 May 2012, 9:58 am   -   Source: AAP
Police security outside Lisburn courthouse in Northern Ireland where seven Irish republicans were arraigned on terror charges. (AAP)

Police security outside Lisburn courthouse in Northern Ireland where seven Irish republicans were arraigned on terror charges. (AAP)

Seven Irish republicans, some of whom are believed to be senior Real IRA operatives, have been charged with terrorism offences.

Seven Irish republicans, including three relatives of a senior reputed Real IRA member and four others allegedly operating a forest rifle range, have been arraigned on terror charges following a security sweep against militants plotting to sabotage Northern Ireland's peace process.

Three were charged with "directing terror", a crime never before levied against a suspected Irish Republican Army member in Northern Ireland.

Use of the charge suggests that police and Britain's domestic spy agency, MI5, believe they have caught senior members of the Real IRA faction and will present evidence from electronic surveillance and informers, typically the only means to convict senior figures.

Three relatives of Colin Duffy, a reputed senior Real IRA figure, appeared in a courtroom southwest of Belfast surrounded by police officers in full riot gear. None offered pleas and all were ordered held without bail until their next court appearance June 8.

Duffy's brothers, Paul, 47, and Damien, 42, and cousin Shane Duffy, 41, all were charged with four counts of preparing acts of terrorism, conspiring to murder and conspiring to cause explosions. Paul Duffy also was charged with directing terrorism.

Colin Duffy, who wasn't charged as part of the latest sweep, was acquitted in January of murdering two off-duty British soldiers. He joined relatives and friends in the courtroom's public gallery and cheered supportively as the three men were led away in handcuffs.

And in Omagh, the Northern Ireland town where the Real IRA committed the single deadliest bombing of the entire four-decade conflict, a woman and three men were arraigned on charges of preparing acts of terrorism, possessing a rifle and ammunition, and attending a Real IRA training camp in secluded woods near Omagh.

Two of those charged, 37-year-old Sharon Rafferty and 46-year-old Sean Kelly, also were charged with directing terror. All four were ordered held without bail until their next court date Tuesday.

The Real IRA killed 29 people, mostly women and children, in an August 15, 1998, car-bomb attack on the centre of Omagh. The group laid low for nearly a decade but in 2007 resumed attacks, chiefly against police and their civilian supporters.

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