Dublin MEP Clare Daly has said she is taking legal advice over a Sunday Times story regarding her links with a Lithuanian diplomat who was subsequently found guilty of spying for Russia.
The paper alleges that the Independents 4 Change MEP provided Algirdas Paleckis, a person prosecuted by the Lithuanian security services for passing information to the Kremlin, with the email address of Liam Campbell – the man found civilly liable for the Omagh bombing.
The Sunday Times said this happened in November 2021 and the two men were subsequently in contact.
At that time, Paleckis was under house arrest pending an appeal, while Campbell was fighting extradition to Lithuania on terrorism charges – charges which were subsequently dropped.
In a statement to RTÉ News, Clare Daly said she was taking the story “very seriously on the eve of an election.”
She added: “Any dealings I have had with any political prisoners has always been anchored in the work of the cross-party Oireachtas group on prisoner conditions and reinforcing the peace process.”
She said; “I’ve known Liam Campbell through that work since 2012 and attended the trial of his brother Michael in Lithuania along with TDs Eamon Ó Cuiv, Martin Ferris and Maureen O’Sullivan.”
Asked whether she facilitated communication between Algirdas Paleckis and Liam Campbell, Clare Daly replied that she could not talk about the issue as she is waiting on legal advice from her solicitor.
Ms Daly re-iterated: “I am taking this very seriously in the context of foreign interference in the elections.”
