US A court in Lithuania yesterday remanded in custody two suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents after police allegedly caught one of them trying to buy explosives from an undercover officer.
LIUDAS DAPKUS, VILNIUS
A court in Lithuania yesterday remanded in custody two suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents after police allegedly caught one of them trying to buy explosives from an undercover officer.
Irish police said they followed Michael Campbell, brother of a Real IRA commander, and a female companion on their weekend flight from Dublin to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.
Campbell, 35, and the woman were both arrested on Tuesday after Campbell tried to buy explosives.
"Both are suspected of intending to acquire large amounts of explosives. They are also suspected of supporting a terrorist organisation: the Real Irish Republican Army," said prosecutor Irmantas Mikelionis.
Lithuania's State Security Department and Defence Ministry co-ordinated the sting operation in co-operation with Irish security agents.
A Vilnius court yesterday ordered Campbell to be detained without charge for three months, and the woman for two weeks, on suspicion of supporting terrorism.
Prosecutor Irmantas Mikelionis said that, if convicted, the suspects faced up to eight years' imprisonment for trying to buy weapons and up to 10-20 years in jail for supporting a terrorist group.
Neither Ireland nor Britain has indicated they want to extradite the two suspects, said a prosecutors' spokeswoman.
Campbell's brother Liam helped found the Real IRA in 1997 and is now the faction's overall commander, Irish police say. Liam Campbell is serving an eight-year prison sentence in Ireland for membership of the outlawed group.
Michael Campbell served a four-month prison sentence in the Netherlands in 2004 after being convicted of smuggling millions of counterfeit cigarettes into Ireland, a criminal racket run by the Real IRA.
The dissidents mount occasional gun and bomb attacks in Northern Ireland but have struggled to acquire weapons.
In 2001, three Real IRA members were caught in a joint British-Slovak sting while trying to negotiate the purchase of thousands of pounds of explosives, rocket launchers, guns and other weaponry from British agents posing as Iraqi arms dealers. The three were extradited from Slovakia to Britain and received 28-year prison sentences.
The Real IRA, which killed 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bombing, has refused to disarm following a 1998 peace deal in Northern Ireland. Larger paramilitary groups have taken part in the peace process.-AP
