McKevitt 'agent' in witness box

Michael McKevitt denies all the charges

The main prosecution witness in the trial of the alleged leader of the dissident republican Real IRA has given evidence at a court in the Republic of Ireland.

Michael McKevitt, 53, is the first person to appear at Dublin's non-jury Special Criminal Court charged with directing terrorism.

The offence was one of a range of measures introduced by the Irish Government in the wake of the Omagh bombing in 1998.

The County Louth businessman is also charged with membership of an illegal organisation. He denies the charges.

Mr McKevitt faces a possible life sentence if found guilty.

Civil action

The main prosecution witness, David Rupert, 51, was an FBI and MI5 agent who is alleged to have spied on the Real IRA.

Tight security and intense media interest surrounded Mr Rupert's appearance in court on Monday, where he outlined his background in the USA and how he came to have an interest in Irish affairs.

In more than an hour in the witness box, he spoke of his business career and financial problems in America.

The prosecution described Mr Rupert as "a man of very considerable physical stature" - he is about 6ft 5in tall and heavily built.

Mr Rupert, who once ran a trucking business, told the court he has been married four times.

He first came to Ireland in the early 1990s after meeting a woman who wanted to visit the land of her forefathers.

They broke up after returning to the United States, and he subsequently met another woman in an Irish pub in Florida.

He told the court she worked as a lobbyist for Noraid, an American fundraising organisation which supported the IRA, and that she "took an Irish republican slant" on Irish issues.

'Morally acceptable'

On a trip to Ireland with her, he was introduced to two pub owners in Sligo and Donegal who were described to him as republicans.

He said when approached by an FBI agent in summer 1994 , he initially declined but on reflection said he found it "morally acceptable to do".

The prosecution has told the court that Mr Rupert was paid $1.25m dollars by MI5 and the FBI for work as their agent.

Last week, the prosecution said Mr Rupert would testify that Michael McKevitt told him of his plans to establish a new organisation involving the Real IRA and Continuity IRA.

The trial, which is expected to last for up to six weeks, will resume on Tuesday.

Mr McKevitt is one of five people the relatives of the victims of the Omagh bombing are taking a separate civil action against in Northern Ireland.

The Real IRA attack on 15 August 1998 killed 29 people, including a woman who was seven months pregnant with twins.

The Real IRA was formed after a split within the mainstream IRA. The dissident group is opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process.