Two men, including a one from Fermanagh, have been charged with the alleged planning of a bomb which was found in Co Louth last year.
Brian Cavlan (49), of Corrainey Road, Dungannon and Peter Granaghan (44) of Gurteen Road, Garrison, appeared via videolink from Musgrave Custody Suite to Strabane Magistrates Court today (Thursday).
They are jointly charged with preparation of terrorist acts on dates between June 3 and 8, 2024.
Counsel from the Public Prosecution Service outlined that the charges arise out of investigations following the discovery of a high-explosive bomb outside an abandoned nightclub in Co Louth on June 8.
Currently Emmett Maguire (43) of Station Road and Rory Logan (44), of Ross Close, Enniskillen are charged with transporting the bomb from a graveyard in Cavan to the Louth location.
However a police detective sergeant told the court that four days prior Cavlan and Granaghan were allegedly seen driving Logan’s Landrover from a shop in Belleek to the graveyard in Cavan.
The sergeant said that CCTV, Automatic Number-Plate Recognition (ANPR) and data recovered from the vehicle’s Satnav showed the three men traveling to the graveyard.
Police believe that this was to show Logan where to pick up the bomb four days later and forms the charge of preparation of terrorist acts.
The detective added that there are ‘multiple strands’ of ‘circumstantial evidence’ including meetings between the accused, anti-surveillance movements by the accused and intelligence collected by the Gardai that connect the defendants to the charge.
The sergeant added that they believe Cavlan and Granaghan were ‘trusted’ by senior IRA leadership with the information on the bombs whereabouts.
It was also highlighted that during two seven-and-a-half hour long interviews both defendants stayed silent and refused to offer any other explanation for their movements.
Defence counsel Kelly Doherty, acting for Cavlan, asked if the bomb was in the graveyard on June 4, which the detective said he couldn’t answer, but said he believed it was collected from the Cavan site on June 8.
Representing Granaghan, defence counsel Sophie McClintock noted that there was no CCTV from Cavan on June 4 which showed the accused at the Cavan graveyard, which police confirmed.
She also questioned the precision of the Radio Frequency (RF) data and Satnav data, which police explained placed the defendants within ‘800 meters’ of the graveyard.
District Judge Alana McSorley said that the defendants could be connected to the charges and that there was ‘reasonable suspicion’.
No application for bail was made, with both men being remanded in custody to appear at Omagh Magistrates Court on November 4 for an update.