Campbell extradition bid

Dundalk man Liam Campbell is the subject of an attempt to extradite him to Lithuania following his arrest this week.

He appeared in court on foot of a warrant from the Lithuanian authorities who are seeking his extradition claiming he conspired with three others to obtain arms for the ‘Real IRA’ in the Baltic republic between 2006 and 2007.

The court heard Campbell was detained by the gardai at a car park in Dundalk on Tuesday afternoon. He was previously convicted in May 2004 by the non-jury Special Criminal Court of being a member of the the IRA.

When the charges were put to him, Campbell replied: “Write this down, I am not guilty of that.”

Bail terms were agreed but will not be approved until Monday afternoon.

His brother Michael Campbell is currently behind bars in Lithuania awaiting trial in connection with the same charges.

POLICE RAIDS

Meanwhile, Republican Sinn Féin has hit out at a cross-border operation targeting republicans in Counties Monaghan and Fermanagh.

Two men were arrested at their homes in County Fermanagh at around 7:00a.m. on Tuesday morning following the arrest of a man by the 26-County police in County Monaghan on Monday. They are being held under the provisions of the “Offences Against the State Act” and the “Terrorism Act 2000” respectively.

Seven carloads of PSNI men were involved, along with a jeep and a transit van, at the home of one of the Fermanagh men, armed with heavy machinery including door-breaking equipment.

RSF Director of Publicity, Richard Walsh, said that the operation showed “the collaboration between the forces of both statelets within Ireland”.

“It is ironic, though not surprising, that at a time when the Free State are falsely claiming continuity with the First Dail -- which came into being exactly ninety years ago to the day -- they are collaborating with those who subverted Dail Eireann, and locking up those who seek to secure the realisation of the high ideals expressed in the Mansion House in 1919.

“The operation carried out on both sides of the border, and indeed the very existence of that border, give the lie to the claim that the administration operating out of Leinster House is the linear successor to the First and Second All-Ireland Dail.”

MANSION HOUSE PROTEST

The small republican political party eirigi staged a protest at the Mansion House this week during the official commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the First Dail.

As hundreds of elected representatives and other dignitaries gathered inside the building, two activists succeeded in unfurling a giant banner from the roof, reading ‘90 years on - No closer to freedom - End the Occupation’.

A spokesman said the Dail ceremony “was yet another attempt to revise Irish history and portray the Twenty-Six County state as the complete, fully independent and democratic Ireland.

“This attempt to normalise partition and the ongoing British occupation could not have been allowed to proceed without challenge.”

Urgent Appeal