A man from Northern Ireland accused of plotting the Omagh bomb in which 29 people died was freed on £100,000 bail yesterday. Mr Justice Carney freed Mr Colm Murphy on his own bond of £50,000 and two independent sureties of £25,000 each at the High Court, Dublin.
The judge also ordered Mr Murphy to report daily to Dundalk Garda station and to surrender his passport.
The judge said Mr Murphy had a "prima-facie entitlement under the law and Constitution to bail".
On Tuesday the Special Criminal Court refused bail for Mr Murphy, the first person to be charged in connection with the bombing.
Mr Murphy (46), a married father of four and building contractor and publican, is from Co Armagh, with an address at Jordan's Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth.
He was charged last month with conspiring in Dundalk with another person not before the court to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property in the State or elsewhere between August 13th and 16th last year.
He is also charged with membership of an unlawful organisation on August 14th, 1998. Opposing bail yesterday, Supt Thomas Flannery, Carrick macross, said the conspiracy charge related to the Omagh bomb on August 15th, 1998, when 29 people were killed and up to 400 hundred people were injured.
He said the charge carried a maximum of 20 years' imprisonment on conviction. The superintendent said it would be alleged that Mr Murphy belonged to the Continuity Army Council and that the membership charge carried a maximum of seven years' imprisonment on conviction.
Supt Flannery said Mr Murphy made admissions over a three-day period while in Garda custody. He said Mr Murphy was jailed for two years for firearms offences by the Special Criminal Court in June 1972.
He escaped from the Curragh Military Prison in October 1972 and was recaptured in May 1973. Mr Murphy was jailed for three years in June 1976 for firearms offences and one year for IRA membership.
Supt Flannery said Mr Murphy was convicted on July 15th, 1983, in the United States of attempting to buy a consignment of M60 machine-guns for the INLA and was jailed for five years. The superintendent said Mr Murphy was a building contractor from Belleeks, Co Armagh, and also owned 30 acres of land in Drogheda.
He said he did not believe that Mr Murphy would turn up for his trial if granted bail because of the seriousness of the charges and the likely sentence on conviction.
Mr Murphy said he would turn up for his trial if granted bail and would abide by any conditions laid down by the court.
Mr Justice Carney said the prosecution had emphasised that the offences with which Mr Murphy was charged "relate to an outrage and that is undoubtedly so".
But he said there was either a presumption of innocence or not and Mr Murphy was entitled to a presumption of innocence. Mr Murphy is due to appear again at the Special Criminal Court on April 27th.