Defendants in IRA extortion case still in jail

The trial of the three men charged in the IRA extortion case came to an end last week when the jury failed to agree verdicts. Some of the reports of the proceedings during the trial are worth reading. And, as the BBC report notes, “The retrial will provisionally start on 23 November.” But today’s Irish News has some additional information, in particular, on Máirtín’s “mate, Ronnie McCartney”. From the Irish News report [no subs req] – “Two former republican prisoners remain in jail in England while facing a retrial on charges of taking part in an alleged IRA blackmail plot.”

It has now emerged that in May last year [NI Secretary of State, Shaun Woodward] revoked [Ronald] McCartney’s [early release] licence after he was implicated in the alleged blackmail plot. A Prison Service spokesman confirmed that the secretary of state had revoked McCartney’s licence as a result of information received from police that he presented a serious risk to the public. It is understood that Nick Mullen has not yet applied to the courts for bail.

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