"Real IRA" leader Michael McKevitt is expected to appeal the 20-year sentence handed down by the Special Criminal Court yesterday for directing terrorism.
The 53-year-old Co Louth man has 21 days to lodge an appeal with the Court of Criminal Appeal, and signalled yesterday he was reinstating his legal team after dismissing it during what he described as a "political show trial".
McKevitt made a brief appearance in the dock yesterday to ask leave to appeal but this was automatically refused as he did not give grounds. He appeared relaxed, and replied: "Right, that's fine" before asking if he could apply for legal aid and appoint a solicitor to fight his appeal. This was granted.
It is expected McKevitt will appeal not just the severity of the sentence but his conviction of membership of an unlawful organisation and directing terrorism. He had pleaded not guilty to both charges.
McKevitt is the first person in the State to be convicted of directing a terrorist organisation - an offence for which he received 20 years to run concurrently with a six-year sentence for membership of the "Real IRA".
Passing sentence yesterday, Mr Justice Johnson, presiding, said the offences were "planned and premeditated" and posed a "serious threat to people and property".
While he said McKevitt "played a leading role" in the "Real IRA", he pointed out that the offences were outside the date of the Omagh bombing, an atrocity for which the group admitted responsibility.
McKevitt, a father of five who is married to a sister of the late IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, was removed to Portlaoise Prison to begin his sentence, which is to run from March 29th, 2001, when he was first taken into custody.
Since his arrest, McKevitt has fallen out of favour with other senior figures in the "Real IRA", whom he accused, in a letter with fellow "Real IRA" prisoners in Portlaoise, of corruption and lacking political direction. Nonetheless, security forces in the North were reportedly intensifying undercover operations last night amid fears of a backlash over the imprisonment.
"The threat level is significant and extremely worrying and everybody . . . is on full alert," said a security source.
A 20-year sentence, although somewhat rare in criminal trials, was not uncommon in terrorist-related convictions stretching back to the 1970s.
In one of the last convictions for IRA activities in the Republic, three Dublin men were jailed for 20 years each and a fourth for 12 years by the Special Criminal Court in February 1998.
The four, who were convicted of having a bomb factory in Co Laois in June 1996, a year before the last IRA ceasefire, were the last Provisional IRA prisoners to be released from Portlaoise Prison under the terms of the Belfast Agreement in October 1998.
McKevitt sentenced to 20 years for 'Real IRA' role: page 5; Editorial comment: page 15
