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DUBLIN – Seven Irish republicans, including three relatives of a seniorreputed Real IRA member and four others allegedly operating aforest rifle range, were arraigned Saturday on terror chargesfollowing a security sweep against militants plotting to sabotageNorthern Ireland's peace process. Three were charged with "directing terror," a crime never beforelevied against a suspected Irish Republican Army member in NorthernIreland. Use of the charge suggests that police and Britain'sdomestic spy agency, MI5, believe they have caught senior membersof the Real IRA faction and will present evidence from electronicsurveillance and informers, typically the only means to convictsenior figures. Three relatives of Colin Duffy, a reputed senior Real IRA figure,appeared in a courtroom southwest of Belfast surrounded by policeofficers in full riot gear. None offered pleas and all were orderedheld 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 ofterrorism, 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, wasacquitted in January of murdering two off-duty British soldiers. Hejoined relatives and friends in the courtroom's public gallery andcheered supportively as the three men were led away in handcuffs. And in Omagh, the Northern Ireland town where the Real IRAcommitted the single deadliest bombing of the entire four-decadeconflict, a woman and three men were arraigned on charges ofpreparing acts of terrorism, possessing a rifle and ammunition, andattending a Real IRA training camp in secluded woods near Omagh. Two of those charged, 37-year-old Sharon Rafferty and 46-year-oldSean Kelly, also were charged with directing terror. All four wereordered held without bail until their next court date Tuesday. The Real IRA killed 29 people, mostly women and children, in anAug. 15, 1998, car-bomb attack on the center of Omagh. The grouplaid low for nearly a decade but in 2007 resumed attacks, chieflyagainst police and their civilian supporters. Policemen testified that they had audio recordings of Rafferty andKelly discussing how to target police officers, acquiring guns,running firearms training and financing Real IRA operations. Kellyis a former convicted member of the Provisional IRA, the dominantfaction that renounced violence and disarmed in 2005. All four allegedly were seen leaving a Real IRA firearms-trainingsession in March, and police said they recovered both DNA evidenceand about 200 casings of spent bullets from the scene. Police saidthey had found a rifle, terrorist-style masks, rubber gloves andfour sets of waterproof clothing at the home of another man facingcharges, Gavin Coney. Northern Ireland authorities created the offense of "directingterror" in 1994 as a way to convict previously untouchablecommanders of paramilitary groups, who typically didn't directlyparticipate in attacks, but the new charge has been applied onlyonce before: to convict Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair, a notorious Belfastmilitant from the British Protestant side of the community, in1995. Adair had been tape-recorded bragging to undercover policemenabout his murderous exploits against the IRA's host Catholiccommunity. Authorities in the neighboring Republic of Ireland also introducedthe "directing terror" charge in 1998 following the Omagh bombatrocity, but it too has been used just once: to convict thefounder and original senior commander of the Real IRA, MichaelMcKevitt. Proving that case required use of an American doubleagent recruited by the FBI and MI5 to befriend McKevitt. Police braced for potential trouble Saturday in the Duffys' powerbase of Lurgan, a religiously polarized town southwest of Belfast.Typically Real IRA members and supporters have mounted carhijackings and bomb threats whenever Colin Duffy or his relativeshave faced legal action. In the first sign of such trouble within an hour of the Duffys'court appearance, police said they discovered a possible bomb at aroadside in the Belfast suburb of Dunmurry, evacuated severalnearby homes, and deployed British Army bomb engineers to thescene. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China Industrial Pallet Racking , China Narrow Aisle Racking, and more. For more , please visit Steel Mezzanine Floor today!
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