Campbell to face retrial in Lithuania

Michael Campbell

Lithuania’s Supreme Court has ordered the retrial of Michael Campbell, who was acquitted of plotting to smuggle arms from the Baltic state to the Real IRA.

Campbell was initially sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2011 for aiding a terrorist group and illegal possession of arms.

But an appeals court struck down the sentence in October last year, saying it could not rule out Campbell’s claim that he was framed by British intelligence.

In the latest twist in the long-running case, a seven-judge panel that the appeals court gave a “contradictory” assessment of intelligence witnesses.

“The panel decided to annul the verdict of 2 October, 2013, and refer the case to an appeals court,” judge Gintaras Goda said, reading the verdict.

Campbell, 41, lives in Faughart and did not travel to Vilnius for the verdict.

His lawyers and prosecutor did not appear either, and they could not be immediately reached for a comment.

“The court of appeals groundlessly downgraded part of evidence and by giving priority to testimony of the acquitted person,” prosecutor Gedgaudas Norkunas told the court in a hearing last month.

Campbell’s lawyer Ingrida Botyriene rejected the prosecutor’s arguments, telling the court that “provoked activity cannot be recognised as criminal”.

Campbell went on trial in August 2009 after having been arrested in a January 2008 sting in Vilnius, where he met a Lithuanian agent posing as an arms dealer.

He denied being a member of the Real IRA.

Campbell’s brother Liam was one of four Real IRA leaders found liable by a civil court for a 1998 bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland that killed 29 people.

Local man acquitted of arms smuggling facing possible retrial

Michael Campbell

Lithuanian prosecutors have appealed the acquittal of a Dundalk man charged with plotting to smuggle arms to the Real IRA.

41-year-old Michael Campbell was arrested in 2008 in Vilnius and sentenced to 12 years in 2011 for attempted smuggling.

However, he successfully appealed his conviction last October, after arguing there was no evidence to support the testimony of a leading prosecution witness.

Prosecutors now say they want a retrial and will be fighting for it in the coming weeks.

Michael Campbell released by Lithuanian appeals court

Michael Campbell

An appeal court has released a local man who was imprisoned in Lithuania after being convicted of trying to buy weapons for the Real IRA.

Michael Campbell, from Upper Faughart, was arrested in 2008 as part of a string operation as he tried to purchase guns and explosives.

He was sentenced to 12 years in 2011 but that conviction has now been overturned and he has been released with immediate effect.

At the time of his conviction in October 2011, Campbell claimed he was set up.

TDs Maureen O’Sullivan, Clare Daly, Martin Ferris and Eamon Ó Cuiv, who visited Mr Campbell in jail, said they were satisfied with the decision having admitted to having “serious concerns over his conviction.”

They also insisted that he had spent “over five years in poor, overcrowded and inhumane conditions.”