Former Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt has brrn granted leave to apply to the Supreme Court to appeal his conviction for directing terrorism.
McKevitt (55) from Beech Park, Blackrock, Co Louth was jailed for 20 years by the Special Criminal Court in August, 2003.
He was the first person to be convicted in the state for the offence of directing terrorism.
He was also handed down a six-year concurrent prison sentence for membership of the Real IRA.
The offence was introduced after the Omagh bombing in 1998, which killed 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins.
The three-judge Court of Criminal Appeal granted McKevitt leave for the application under Section 29 of the Court of Justice Act, 1924, which allows for an appeal where the credibility of a witness may be in doubt.
McKevitt last year lost an appeal against his conviction for directing terrorism. At the time his legal team argued his conviction was unsafe because of the unreliability of the central prosecution witness, FBI agent David Rupert.