Distretto Nord

Repubblicani accusati della rapina alla Northern Bank

£26m raid team charge republicans

Two Sinn Fein members have appeared in court after being arrested by Irish police investigating the £26.5m Northern Bank raid in Belfast.

Northern Bank, BelfastTom Hanlon, 42, of Pembroke Road in Passage West appeared with George Hegarty, 62, from Pembroke Cottages in Douglas, before a court in Dublin.

Both men, arrested in Cork on Monday, were charged with IRA membership.

Mr Hanlon was a Sinn Fein councillor until 2004, and stood in the Republic’s general election in 2002.

The Special Criminal Court heard Mr Hanlon, a father of four school children, made no reply when arrested on suspicion of being a member of an unlawful organisation, the IRA, on 16 February, 2005.

Mr Hegarty was also charged with being a member of the IRA on the same date.

A lawyer for Mr Hegarty, a father of five on disability benefits, said he was a primary carer for his partner and his grown-up child who has a learning disability.

Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding over the three-judge court which deals with terrorist and organised crime, insisted a bail hearing should go ahead on Tuesday despite prosecution calls for the pair to be remanded in custody for 48 hours.

The judge said he was taking into consideration the age of the alleged offences and evidence both men have lived in Cork and been available to investigators since February 2005.

The men were arrested as part of Irish police’s Operation Phoenix, which is investigating the laundering of cash taken in the 2004 robbery in Belfast.

Last month, Cork financial adviser Ted Cunningham became the only person so far to have been found guilty of an offence connected to the robbery.

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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