A DUNDALK man recently found liable for the 1998 Real IRA Omagh bombing can face court proceedings in Northern Ireland to be extradited to Lithuania to face arms and explosives smuggling charges, a Belfast judge has ruled.
Judge Tom Burgess, the Recorder of Belfast, yesterday rejected an application by Liam Campbell (46) from Faughart, Dundalk, Co Louth, to have him returned to the Republic for continuation of extradition proceedings against him in Dublin.
His brother Michael is already in custody in Lithuania on arms smuggling charges.
Last month Campbell and three other men including Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt were found liable for £1.6 million in civil damages for their involvement in the August 1998 bombing which claimed the lives of 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins.
Proceedings to extradite him to Lithuania were taking place in the Republic, but in May this year Campbell, who was on bail, was arrested by the PSNI when he crossed the Border into Co Armagh to bring his wife, who could not drive because of an injury, to work.
He was questioned for four days under British terrorism legislation about the Omagh bombing before being freed without charge.
He was then immediately rearrested under a European warrant issued by the Lithuanian authorities last year alleging he conspired to obtain arms, ammunition and explosives to bring into Ireland for the Real IRA in 2006 and 2007 – the same warrant as was issued against him in the Republic.
Campbell listened in the dock as Judge Burgess said that he “chose of his own free will to come to this jurisdiction” when he was arrested. The court had heard from the Lithuanian authorities that they wished the extradition case to proceed in the UK and the judge concluded that the case against Campbell should take place in Northern Ireland.
Judge Burgess in his ruling referred to a letter received in mid-June from the Irish Chief State Solicitor David J O’Hagan who wrote that it appeared that the “most direct route for his surrender to Lithuania is if the EAW [European arrest warrant] transmitted to the UK is processed in the normal way”.
While Campbell’s lawyers argued that proceedings against him were at an advanced stage in the Republic, Judge Burgess noted that Mr O’Hagan also wrote that the extradition proceedings “were at a very early stage” in the Republic and that it was “not considered Mr Campbell’s case would have been heard in the [Dublin] High Court in 2009”.
Judge Burgess rejected the allegation that the Lithuanian authorities were engaging in “forum shopping” in that they preferred to pursue the case through the Belfast courts due to “some perceived advantage” accruing in the Northern Ireland courts.
“There are no grounds for an argument that one state, the UK or the Republic of Ireland, is more or less likely to surrender Mr Campbell in terms of the exercise of the powers by the judicial authorities in these two jurisdictions,” he said.
Judge Burgess added that in relation to the extradition laws applying in the two jurisdictions “arguably there are more bars to extradition in Northern Ireland than in the Republic of Ireland”.
The judge also stated that Campbell’s “continuing attempts to return to the Republic make it highly unlikely, if indeed it would ever be possible, that he would turn up for any hearing in Northern Ireland”.
Campbell, who was again remanded in custody, could appeal the extradition case decision.