The former Beirut hostage, Mr Brian Keenan, has told the High Court in Belfast that Mr Denis Donaldson, a senior Sinn Fein official accused of spying for the IRA, was one of two people who "put their lives at risk on my behalf." The other was Mr Terry Waite, he said in a letter to the court which is hearing a bail application by Mr Donaldson.
A detective opposing the application has alleged Mr Donaldson is a key member of the IRA's intelligence-gathering unit, forming close links with international terrorist groups, including the Basque terrorist movement ETA, and the PLO.
But a defence lawyer told the court that Mr Donaldson, Sinn Féin's head of administration at Stormont, totally rejected the accusation. Mr Seamus Treacey QC said Mr Donaldson was one of a number of influential republicans involved in exploratory talks with unionists as early as 1991, seven years before the signing of the Belfast Agreement.
A letter submitted by Father Gerry Reynolds of Clonard Monastery in west Belfast, where the secret monthly meetings were held, said that Mr Donaldson totally backed efforts to end the violence.
"While I recognise he's a republican through and through, I have no doubt about his commitment to solving difficulties solely by political means," he said.
Mr Donaldson faces five charges connected to an alleged republican espionage plot inside the Northern Ireland Secretary's offices at Stormont.
The judge, Lord Justice Nicholson, adjourned the bail hearing until today.
More than 1,200 documents were found in a rucksack during a police raid on Mr Donaldson's west Belfast home early last month as part of a major security operation which led to the suspension of Northern Ireland's power-sharing Assembly.
He was one of four people arrested and charged in connection with suspected IRA spying.
But Mr Treacey told the court: "Mr Donaldson vehemently denies he's a member of the IRA."
It also emerged in the letter that Mr Keenan, who was held hostage in Beirut during the 1980s, told how Mr Donaldson negotiated with the senior Shia spiritual adviser to the Hezbollah group holding him captive.
He wrote: "For the whole period of my incarceration, only two human beings put their lives at risk on my behalf. One was Terry Waite and the other was Denis Donaldson."
The court heard that Mr Donaldson was issued with a shotgun licence for clay-pigeon shooting earlier this year on appeal to the former secretary of state, Dr John Reid. Police have not revoked the permit despite the charges against him.
Det Supt Roy Suitters has opposed bail amid fears that Mr Donaldson could use international contacts to flee Northern Ireland.
Security intelligence on the father of three claimed he attended a conference held by ETA in Madrid in November 1984.
A year earlier, it was alleged, he was in Paris for a similar event along with other unnamed groups to discuss the situation in El Salvador and Nicaragua.
But the defence has insisted that Mr Donaldson never set foot in Spain or Latin America.
Mr Treacey warned that lawful events could be misinterpreted as a secret and "sinister" gathering.
He stressed that Mr Donaldson had not been arrested since 1981 when he was held in Paris on his way back from briefing the PLO in Beirut on the IRA hunger-strike inside the Maze Prison.
"It was commonplace for people at that point in time to use false passports going to the Middle East," he said.
Mr Donaldson is accused of having papers containing details about the British army's General Officer Commanding in Northern Ireland, Lieut Gen Sir Alistair Irwin; a sketch of Castle Buildings, Stormont; and details on loyalists and a serving police officer.
As the defendant appeared in court via video-link from Maghaberry Prison near Lisburn, Co Antrim, his lawyer insisted that no fingerprints belonging to his client had been found on any of the papers seized.
He said the Crown could not hope to secure a conviction.
But a Crown lawyer stressed that only 30 documents had undergone full forensic tests. "There are various tranches of documents being examined," he said.