The sister of a man on remand on explosives charges in Maghaberry Prison has rubbished claims by Sinn Féin that it has fully backed the family's campaign to have him freed.
And she has defied the party to produce evidence of their support, claiming instead the party has ignored their plight.
Annemarie Doherty from Derry, contacted The Star last week after our exclusive about the campaign, but was furious at the Sinn Féin claims.
She said: "Sinn Féin supporting us? Sure they've done nothing for us. They've done everything but look at us."
Her 35-year old brother Seamus has been on remand for the last 15 months since being arrested after his DNA was allegedly found on a lunch box in an abandoned car containing the components of explosive device, intercepted by the PSNI in September 2002 outside Newry.
The case has been tied to the controversial failed prosecutions of two South Down men, Martin Brogan and Mark Carroll.
They were arrested in September 2002 near the abandoned car containing the explosive parts but later cleared when their November 2003 trial heard police and army tried to suppress DNA evidence linking a suspected agent to the bomb parts, and contaminate their clothing with forensic residue from the device.
The suspected agent has since disappeared from his South Down home.
But the following summer Seamus, a father of two, from the Brandywell in Derry, and an ex-Provisional IRA prisoner, was allegedly warned by cops he would soon be arrested if he did not himself turn informant.
He refused and days later was charged in connection with the bomb parts, even though he denies the charges against him or having ties to any of the three originally linked to the device, and was a hundred miles away in Derry, when Brogan and Carroll were arrested.
He says undercover security force members raided his flat to obtain DNA to plant on the device. The raiders were disturbed not least because Doherty was in the flat at the time. He raised the alarm and the men were reportedly seen by witnesses fleeing the scene.
His family and supporters are demanding his immediate release ahead of his pending trial.
Doherty is now on the dissident republican wing of the jail, and the Irish Republican Prisoners' Welfare Association (IRPWA) has lent its support to the campaign.
An independent republican councillor who has campaigned to have the trio cleared, Martin Cunningham, has described their detentions as 'internment by another name'.
He has also highlighted similar recent failed prosecutions where Catholics were incarcerated on the word of 'agent provocateurs', only for their prosecutions to collapse.
And Annemarie is calling on Sinn Féin to produce evidence of their support for the campaign.
She said: "The only person who has been behind us all the way has been the former Sinn Féin councillor for Newry and Mourne, Martin Cunningham.
"And they kicked him out of the party for his support for Brogan, Carroll. It was Martin who got the motion passed in council to get the Police Ombudsman to probe their arrests by the PSNI.
"He's been onboard since the campaign started.
"The Sinn Féin Mayor for Derry, Gerry O'Hara, came out of the Guildhall recently and said the party was fully behind the campaign, but he's ignored it since.
"Two weeks later a Basque group visited the city, holding a protest and went to give support, with our Free Seamus banners. The media was there and we stood aside, but Sinn Féin completely ignored us and treated us like dirt.
"They can't speak to members of his family but can speak to Basques and the DUP."
She says that they have received the support of SDLP boss Mark Durkan and former Derry Mayor Pat Ramsey.
But a Sinn Féin spokesman told The Star that the party sees Doherty as a political prisoner and in that light deserving of support. He said: "Sinn Féin backed the motion in Derry City Council supporting him and have issued numerous statements, so it's a matter of public record.
"And a number of local councillors, like Raymond McCartney and Billy Page, his own councillor have been very supportive right from day one. But as far as we're concerned he's a political prisoner, deserving of political status and the campaign to have him freed."
