SAOIRSE32

BBC

Two men have been remanded after they were charged with involvement in a republican paramilitary extortion plot.

John Gerard Stitt, 33, of Laburnam Park, Dunmurry, and Michael Patrick Walsh, 29, from Moira Court, Belfast, appeared in court on Saturday.

Both were charged with blackmailing £25,000 from a man known only as Witness A.

Belfast Magistrates Court heard they claimed to be from the INLA or the IRA and threatened to shoot the man.

This took place over a period between 29 February and 23 July.

The men were also charged with inviting Witness A to provide money, which they knew or suspected would be used for terrorist purposes.

A detective constable told the court he believed he could connect each of the men to the charges.

He also said the men alleged that their victim had been dealing in drugs, had been in cahoots with loyalists and had profited by £60,000 and that they wanted their share of the profits.

Witness A went to the police last month and officers subsequently recorded a total of 21 phone conversations, eight meetings and 13 text messages between Witness A and Mr Stitt. The officer added that police believed Mr Walsh was also at the meetings.

The officers further revealed that in mid-June, a bomb exploded in the back yard of Witness A’s north Belfast home and added that police believe this was used as a “lever” to force him to pay over the cash.

On Thursday (July 23), an arrangement was made that Witness A would meet Mr Stitt and hand over £7,500.

The court heard that after the pair had a brief conversation, Mr Walsh turned-up and then the police arrived and arrested the two men.

Interference

Objecting to a bail application, made on behalf of Mr Stitt, the police officer said he believed that “at the very least” he was associated with a paramilitary grouping and also that there was a risk of witnesses being interfered with.

During cross examination by Mr Stitt’s solicitor, it was put to the officer that in fact Witness A had approached Mr Stitt through a third party and that Mr Stitt was trying to help his alleged victim, but the officer said he “didn’t see it like that”.

Refusing the bail application, the judge said she had “grave concerns” about the risk of witness interference and therefore felt obliged to refuse bail, but told Mr Stitt he could appeal her decision at the High Court.

Mr Stitt and Mr Walsh were remanded into custody to appear again via videolink on 12 August.

Irish News
**Via Newshound
By Barry McCaffrey
25/07/08

A Co Fermanagh man claims he has been forced to flee Northern Ireland after refusing to work as a Special Branch informer.

Aidan Ferguson (33) said he fears that persistant attempts to recruit him as an informer will lead to him being murdered by dissident republicans.

“This has been going on for eight years and I’ve finally had enough,” he said.

“I feel I’ve no other choice but to go public.”

The doorman said that over the past eight years Special Branch had repeatedly pressurised him to work as an informer.

“I’d walk out the back of my house and see them standing on a nearby rock,” he said.

“I couldn’t go anywhere without them stopping me and threatening me with some driving or assault charge.

“They told me they wanted me to join the dissidents and said I should try and get my hands on guns and explosives.

“I became so depressed my doctor feared I would take my own life.

“My priest and my solicitor have all tried to get the Special Branch off my back but I feel I’ve no choice other than to go public now and to leave Northern Ireland for good.”

A police spokesman said they did not comment on individual cases.

News Letter
26 July 2008

THREE masked men shot a father-of-three in both legs in a punishment-style attack –- while his wife and six-year-old son wept in the kitchen.

The incident happened at 11.30pm on Thursday at his home at Jamaica Court in Ardoyne, north Belfast.

A police spokesman said a motive for the shooting had not yet been established.

The victim – named locally as Gerard Maguire – was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital where his injuries were not believed to be life threatening.

Last night locals blamed the INLA for the attack and said: “The men went into the house and were going to shoot Gerard in front of his wife and son – then they pushed them screaming and crying into the kitchen. They were put through hell.”

However, last night a spokesman for the INLA denied responsibility for the shooting.

It was further claimed the CIRA were behind the attack.

Yesterday a spokesman for the hospital said Mr Maguire’s condition was “comfortable.”

Ardoyne priest the Rev Aidan Troy said he was in the emergency department of the Royal Victoria hospital in connection with another matter at the time the victim – who had been shot in both legs – was admitted.

He said there was a “huge amount of distress” with his wife and relatives very upset: “The victim is in his late 20s and married with three children.

“One of the children was in the house at the time of the shooting but she and her son were put out into another room, the kitchen, while her husband was shot.”

Fr Troy said like everyone else he thought the days of punishment shootings were over.

SDLP MLA for north Belfast, Alban Maginness, condemned the “horrific attack on a man in his own home in front of his wife and six-year-old child”.

He said: “This attack plumbs the depths of barbarism.

“I suspect there is paramilitary involvement in this but I cannot be sure what organisation is involved.

“I hope such a thing will not be repeated as we had hoped it never would.

“Unfortunately we are still suffering from the hangover of the Troubles and hopefully those responsible will be caught.

“Anyone with information about the incident should give it to the PSNI.”

Sinn Fein councillor Margaret McClenaghan, said: “There is no support for this type of activity.

“If there are people alleging that any form of criminal activity is taking place they should take the information to the PSNI and have them deal with it,” she said.

Irish News
**Via Newshound
24/07/08

The family of a teen-ager whose soldier killers were reinstated into the British army must see justice, the former assessor of military complaints said yesterday.

Jim McDonald said he was saddened by the rehabilitation of two Scots Guardsmen found guilty of murdering 18-year-old Belfast man Peter McBride in 1992.

Mark Wright and James Fisher were found guilty of shooting dead Mr McBride as he ran away from a checkpoint in the New Lodge district of north Belfast.

“I remain saddened by the reinstatement of Fisher and Wright to military service,” Mr McDonald said.

“I think that the injustice done to the McBride family remains in need of redress.”

He said he had no objection to the murderers being released from prison but said it was not good enough for them to be taken back into the army.

“They went so far as dismissing a young man for smoking dope. Fisher and Wright should not have been reinstated in military,” Mr McDonald said.

The soldiers’ claim that they fired because they thought Mr McBride was carrying a coffee-jar bomb was rejected and they were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder.

They were released after six years and allowed to return to the British army.

Mr McDonald stood down as assessor in October 2007 after the end of the army’s Operation Banner in the north.

He looked at complaints over controversial shootings, monitored training and helicopter over-flights.

Mr McBride’s mother, Jean McBride, welcomed Mr McDonald’s support.

“I thought the law was on my side until the British army stepped in and undid the law and put them back into the army,” she said.

“I will never stop fighting for justice because I never got it.”

Meanwhile, Mr McDonald also said he would have taken legal action had the resources been available after he was refused access to military

papers about the July 12 2004 violence in north Belfast’s Ardoyne area.

He wanted to know about planning and what orders were given to troops caught up in rioting after an Orange Order parade passed the flashpoint route. Dozens of police and soldiers were injured during the violence.

Impartial Reporter
24 July 2008

Former Fermanagh Councillor Tony McPhillips is considering legal action over reports of his arrest in a PSNI swoop last week.

McPhillips was one of three Republicans picked up last Thursday morning and questioned about the recent attempted bombing at Rellan, Rosslea. All three were released without charge the following day. But by then, McPhillips’ name had been leaked and used prominently in newspapers.

Republican sources have claimed that the nature of how this was done was a deliberate attempt to associate Mr. McPhillips in the public’s mind with the bomb without any evidence.

This week, Mr McPhillips told the Impartial Reporter: “I have been advised by my solicitor to make no comment other than to state that they are looking into articles which appeared in two daily newspapers last Friday.”

The other two men arrested were not named, but one was described as a member of Republican Sinn Fein ard comhairle.

The party has confirmed this, but has hit out at the arrests, describing them as the men being “abducted” from their homes.

RSF Director of Publicity, Richard Walsh said “Three Fermanagh Republicans were abducted from their homes by the RUC. Evidently Provo cop Lynch as yet has failed to put manners on them. Again it is Hugh Orde’s men who are ‘lashing out like cornered animals’ despite his protestations.”

Republican Sinn Fein have made a number of allegations about police behaviour, saying a daughter of one of the men was taunted about his arrest as they left.

And the party has also accused police of verbally abusing relatives of one of the other men who were stopped between Lisnaskea and Derrylin on Friday morning and family members were stopped at Donagh that afternoon.
Republican Sinn Fein said a daughter of one of the arrested men entered the house asking “Daddy, Daddy, where are you?” and was told he had been taken to Antrim.

“As she left the house, another RUC man mimicked her asking the question and said that if her father been an upstanding member of the community, they would not have been raiding the premises.

“We also condemn the outrageous comments made by RUC personnel to the daughter of one of those seized which were clearly designed to cause distress,” said the Republican Sinn Fein spokesman, claiming that the remarks were also “prejudicial.”

He went on: “On Friday morning two relatives of one of the men were stopped by around 20 members of the RUC between Lisnaskea and Derrylin, backed up by Customs officials. One of the men was called a ‘murdering bastard, a “w***ker” and a prick.’ The other, who suffers from a disability, was called a “crippled bastard” and an RUC man spat in his face,” claimed the Republican party spokesman.

Michael Óg Lavelle, local spokesman for Republican Sinn Féin in Fermanagh described the remarks as “vile and disgusting”.

“They certainly reinforce our opinion that this police force is not fit for purpose.

“It will be interesting to see what Provo Constables Lynch and Ó Cobhthaigh’s reaction is to this harrassment and how they will ‘put manners’ on their new bedfellows. Cllr Ó Cobhthaigh had the audacity to refer to himself as a republican following their collaboration in the Enniskillen area on the eleventh night. RSF have been contacted by a number of residents in the area and will be working on the ground to assist them in the coming weeks.”

Two of the three men arrested attended a Republican commemoration at Swanlinbar on Saturday.

In response to the allegations, the PSNI said “We have no record of any such incidents. However, if anyone has a complaint about the behaviour of a police officer, he or she should make a complaint to the Police Ombudsman’s office.”

Belfast Telegraph
Friday, 25 July 2008

An Iranian-born PhD chemistry student has appeared court charged with possessing an AK47 assault rifle, a magazine and four rounds of ammunition which allegedly belonged to the Real IRA.

Amir-Ali Esmaily, from Lisburn Road, Belfast, is alleged to have committed the offence between July 13 and July 18 this year at a house his family owns at Bradley Park, Derry.

A detective sergeant from the PSNI’s Major Investigations Team told Deputy District Judge James McFarland at Derry Magistrate’s Court that the police believed the defendant kept the rifle and ammunition on behalf of the Real IRA, and that he had links to dissident republicans.

A dozen armed police officers were on duty inside and outside the Bishop Street courthouse for the hearing.

The police witness said the defendant’s houses at Lisburn Road and Bradley Park were searched as a result of information they had received.

Two imitation firearms and an air rifle were found in the defendant’s Belfast home and the assault rifle and loaded magazine as well as an imitation firearm were found in his Derry home.

“We suspect this assault rifle is linked to a Real IRA show of strength last March.

“We suspect this because we have compared photographs of that show of strength with this weapon.

“Four people are currently in custody in the Republic of Ireland in relation to that,” the detective sergeant said.

“We believe this weapon was being held on behalf of the Real IRA and that it would have been used potentially for intimidation and in attacks.”

The detective sergeant said that after he was arrested, the defendant denied for 48 hours any knowledge of the assault rifle, which was found wrapped in plastic sheets in the garden of his Bradley Park home.

The police witness said the defendant held Irish and Iranian passports and detectives believed he had possession of the assault rifle for five days.

Mr McFarland released the defendant on his own bail of £5,000 plus a surety of £100,000, £40,000 of which had to be deposited in court.

BBC
25 July 2008

**Now doesn’t this warm the cockles of your heart?

A Sinn Fein assembly member has said he is not happy that Irish tricolours are being flown from lamp posts in Dungiven to commemorate a dead hunger striker.

Photo: Irish News

Sunday is the anniversary of the death of Kevin Lynch, who died during the 1981 hunger strikes.

Francie Brolly suggested bunting would be more appropriate

The main street has been lined with flags but MLA Francie Brolly said an alternative tribute should be used.

“I have strong feelings about the tricolour, perhaps bunting would be more appropriate for the parade route.”

A man who helped organise Sunday’s commemoration, but did not wish to be named, said he had never heard of any problems with flags being flown in Dungiven before.

“This happens every year and I’ve never heard any complaints about this before,” he said.