A man charged in February with supplying the car used in the Omagh bombing has had all charges against him dropped.
Anthony Donegan, (34) of Afton Drive, Dundalk, Co Louth, was said to have told gardai that he had stolen the car at Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, three days before the bombing. Donegan had denied the charges.
The Northern Ireland Prison Service said he had been released on the instruction of the Public Prosecution Service.
Raymond Kitson of the PPS confirmed the charge had been dropped. “I can tell you the file was received, considered and the test for prosecution was not met.”
He said the Police file had been studied “very, very carefully” before the decision not proceed was made.
Mr Donegan was charged in February in connection with the car used to carry the Real IRA bomb which exploded in the Co Tyrone town in August 1998 killing 29 people, including the mother of unborn twins.
The charge put to him when he appeared before Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh Magistrates Court was that on a date unknown between August 11th and 16th 1998, he made available to another person a maroon Vauxhall Cavalier car knowing it might be used for terrorism.
Mr Donegan's alleged admission about stealing the car was made on June 21st, 1999, while in Garda custody.
The prosecution said he admitted supplying the car to a dissident republican suspect. “Analysis of his mobile phone at the time shows he made contact with a known dissident Omagh bomb suspect," said David Hopley during the February hearing.
But Peter Irvine, for Mr Donegan, said it was “incredulous” that the PSNI had not been supplied with the information and urged the court to be “particularly circumspect about the nature and quality of the evidence”.