A TERRORISM charge against a leading dissident republican in Derry was dropped at the local Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
Gary Donnelly (40), Rathkeele Way, Creggan was charged last August with possessing a mobile “phone for use in the commission or instigation of an act of terrorism”. He was alleged to have committed the offence in September of last year.
The charge was linked to the seizure of Mr Donnelly’s mobile phone by police officers following two pipe bomb attacks and a gun attack last year.
After he was arrested for the offence, Mr Donnelly described his detention as ridiculous. “I have been set up for my political beliefs. As a sign of how ridiculous this whole thing is I was questioned for hours about the shooting of a former mayor of Derry before they realised that it was a different person.”
In court yesterday a prosecution solicitor told District Judge Barney McElholm that the charge against Mr Donnelly was “withdrawn without prejudice”.