by Democrat reporter
A 49-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Denis Donaldson at a sitting of the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on Monday.
Donaldson, a former member of the Provisional IRA and senior Sinn Féin official, was exposed as an MI5 informant months before he was shot dead in Donegal in 2006.
Antoin Duffy, also known as Anton, with an address at Braade, Kincasslagh, Co Donegal, was charged with his murder and with four offences under the Firearms Act 1925. He was also charged with the attempted murder of Liam Copeland McGinley.
Gardaí in the Donegal division arrested Duffy at Casement Aerodrome following his extradition from Scotland on foot of a European arrest warrant, Det Garda Adrian Ahern told the court.
The arrest was carried out with the assistance of An Garda Síochána extradition unit, Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Air Corps.
Duffy was charged with the murder of Donaldson “on a date unknown” between April 3rd and April 4th, 2006, at Cloghercor, Doochary, Co Donegal.
He was also charged with one count of possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life, and one count of possession of ammunition with intent.
The attempted murder charge related to McGinley in an incident on the November 19th, 2007, near Churchhill, Co Donegal.
Duffy was also charged with one count of possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life and one count of possession of ammunition with intent on that date.
Donaldson, a senior Sinn Féin official for many years, was shot dead in a remote cottage in southwest Donegal in April 2006.
In 2005, he was arrested with others and accused of being a part of a republican spy ring based at Stormont. When the case against them collapsed that December, he was exposed as a long-standing British agent.
A solicitor for the State applied for an order to have Duffy tried on all six charges at the non-jury court. In relation to the murder and attempted murder charges, the solicitor said the Director of Public Prosecutions had certified that the ordinary courts were not adequate to hear the trial.
Duffy, who is originally from Donegal, had been in prison in Scotland following his conviction there in 2015 for his part in a plot to murder members of the Ulster Defence Association.
The court approved a request for Duffy to be assigned legal aid and he was remanded in custody to appear in person on April 13th.