SAN DIEGO : Alleged IRA Escapee Held Without Bail
A federal magistrate Friday ordered a man alleged to be an Irish Republican Army member who escaped from prison in Belfast to be held without bail.
U.S. Magistrate Roger Curtis McKee said Kevin Barry John Artt is a danger to society and a flight risk.
A hearing is scheduled Tuesday to determine if Artt will be sent to San Francisco to face a federal indictment charging him and another suspected IRA member with making false statements in an attempt to obtain a U.S. passport.
In court Friday, an FBI agent testified that fingerprints taken at the Maze prison match those of the man in court and a man who identified himself as Kevin Thomas Keohane when he obtained a California driver’s license and a state permit to sell automobiles.
Federal prosecutors say Artt assumed the name of Keohane, who, according to documents introduced as evidence, is dead.
Artt is wanted by British officials because he escaped from prison with 37 other IRA members in 1983 after being convicted of murdering a prison official in 1977.
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