THE Republic's Court of Criminal Appeal has rejected a new bid by Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt to appeal his 2003 conviction for directing terrorism.
The 59-year-old, who has an address at Beech Park in Blackrock, Co Louth, was jailed for 20 years after being convicted of membership of an illegal organisation and directing terrorism between dates in 1999 and 2001.
Previous attempts by McKevitt to have his conviction overturned in 2005 and 2008 also failed.
In the latest attempt, lawyers for McKevitt had argued that a search warrant used to search his home had been issued under Section 29 of the Offences Against the State Act.
The law, which had allowed senior gardai to issue search warrants, was struck down in February 2012 after being found to be unconstitutional.
However, the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday found that an argument by McKevitt's lawyers that the 2012 development was newly discovered fact was "entirely misconceived."