An “extreme right-wing group” produced a video detailing intent to attack mosques and IPAS accommodation, a court was told today, after two men were charged with possession of explosives.
The Irish Times reports that the two men appeared before Portlaoise District Court after bring arrested in Co Laois on Tuesday night “charged with possession of explosives after their arrest by gardaí during a cross-Border antiterrorism operation earlier this week.”
Karolis Peckauskas (38) of Newfoundwell Rd, Drogheda, Co Louth, and Garrett Pollock (35), with an address at Kilhorne Green, Annalong, Co Down, appeared before the court on a number of charges, the paper reported.
Judge Andrew Cody said that a video found on Mr Pollock’s “was a practise of a statement being released subsequent to a successful terrorist attack” – and that those involved sought to bring about the “destruction” of Galway Mosque.
The judge noted that the men in the video said that “the number of migrants that have been brought into the country by our Government” were “a threat to our sovereignty and could potentially be a hostile takeover”.
“They say that they accept [the destruction of Galway Mosque] would have caused a lot of hurt, disappointment and destruction for foreign migrants, both the legal and illegal, in the community, that they do not care,” the judge said.
“They say that this will not be their last attack. They describe their philosophy as an eye for an eye. They say they intend to target Ipas [asylum] centres, Mosques and hotels housing migrants and that they would take this as far as necessary to achieve their goals and call on others to join them.”
The court heard that Mr Pollock did “not accept” he was one of the four masked men in the video, RTÉ reported, while Mr Peckauskas said when charged at Portlaoise Garda Station: “I do not understand”.
It is alleged that Mr Pollock had in his possession “three externally threaded metal pipes, hexagonal metal end caps and lengths of green firework fuse” in the Co Down property.
It is alleged these were “the components of three pipe-bomb-type improvised explosive devices”. It is also alleged he possessed “four incendiary-type improvised explosive devices with white dish-cloth wicks”.
The court was told that the evidence led Gardaí to allege that Mr Pollock was “planning a terrorist attack on behalf of a right-wing extremist group”.
Mr Peckauskas faces one charge of knowingly having in “his possession an explosive substance”.
Bothe men are due to appear in court again next week