The former director of operations of the "Real IRA" was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday for membership of an illegal organisation.
The court suspended the final 18 months of the sentence and ordered that it should date from May 1st, 2001, to take into account time Liam Campbell has already spent in prison.
Liam Campbell is one of five men being sued by relatives of the victims of the 1998 Omagh bomb in which 29 people were killed and over 300 injured. The £10 million claim against the five men and the "Real IRA" is due to start next January at the Belfast High Court.
Liam Campbell (41), a married father of two of Upper Faughart, Dundalk, Co Louth, was convicted last week on two separate counts of being a member of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA, on separate dates in 2000 and 2001.
He was convicted of membership on October 3rd, 2000, and July 29th, 2001, and given two four-year sentences to run consecutively. Campbell had pleaded not guilty to both charges but his legal team did not challenge the prosecution evidence and made no submissions on his behalf.
The Criminal Assets Bureau last year secured a judgment of over €800,000 against Campbell for suspected revenue offences.
Sentencing Campbell, Mr Justice Richard Johnson, presiding at the non-jury court, said: "This is an extremely serious offence because Chief Supt Peter Maguire said that he belongs to that element of the IRA known as the Real IRA." The judge said Campbell had not contested the evidence and the court would treat the offences as equivalent to guilty pleas, and that the court had taken into account the fact that Campbell had saved it time and expense.
The court also took into account the fact that Campbell is a married man with two small children and his commitment to his family. The court sentenced him to four year's imprisonment for the first offence.
Dealing with the second membership offence, Mr Justice Johnson said that because it had been committed while Campbell was on bail, under Section 11 of the Criminal Justice Act of 1984 the sentence must be consecutive to the first.
The court sentenced him to four years' imprisonment for the second offence but suspended the final 18 months and ordered the sentence to date from May 1st, 2001, to take into account time already spent in custody.
Last week Chief Supt Peter Maguire told the court that Campbell was convicted in October 2001 for the membership charge relating to October, 2000 and had been sentenced to five years' imprisonment, but the Court of Criminal Appeal had quashed the conviction in December last year.
The Chief Superintendent said that Campbell had been on bail on the original charge when he was arrested at the Neptune Beach Hotel, Co Meath, in July 2001.
He has served over three years in custody.