Jonathan Hawthorn pleads not guilty to IRA membership

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Jonathan Hawthorn, James Geraghty and Donal O'Ceallaigh pleaded not guilty at the Special Criminal Court to membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the IRA, on 14 September 2016. The proceedings were reported on 4 July 2018.

Opening the prosecution case, John Byrne BL said an undercover FBI agent had received a message through the darknet marketplace AlphaBay from a user called Meat Cleaver seeking Semtex for delivery to Ireland. The prosecution did not say that Meat Cleaver was an identity used by any of the accused men. Mr Byrne said Geraghty's home had been identified as the delivery address.

The report said gardaí created a mock-up package after the FBI agent alerted them. On 14 September 2016, an undercover garda delivered it to Dolphin House, where Hawthorn signed for it in Geraghty's name. Hawthorn was arrested later that morning at St James's Hospital carrying a rucksack containing items from the package.

The trial continued before the non-jury court, with Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy presiding alongside Judge Gerard Griffin and Judge Gerard Haughton.

This case may have concluded differently. The outcome has not yet been confirmed by a public source we could find.