Former Old Bailey bomber Marian Price will plead not guilty to charges of encouraging support for a paramilitary organisation when she appears in Derry magistrates court today (Monday).
A heavy police presence is expected outside the court where dissident republicans are organising a picket in protest at Price being charged under the Terrorism Act.
Price (57) is one of the Provisional IRA's most high-profile former female members. She held a statement for a masked Real IRA man which was read at the 32 County Sovereignty Movement Easter commemoration in Derry last month.
It is understood she has given an explanation to police detailing her account of how she came to hold the document from which the masked man read.
She is the national secretary of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement which security sources say is the Real IRA's political wing, a claim the group denies. She also campaigns for republican prisoners.
Price, her sister Dolours and Gerry Kelly – now a senior Sinn Féin politician – were part of an 11-member IRA unit which bombed London in 1973.
Around 200 people received minor injuries when two bombs exploded outside the Old Bailey and Whitehall and a man died of a heart attack. Two other devices, left at the British Forces Broadcasting Office and New Scotland yard, failed to explode.
Price later embarked on a 200-day hunger-strike in Brixton prison demanding a transfer to a Northern Ireland jail. During the protest, she was force fed 400 times in six months.
She opposed Sinn Féin's political direction in 1994, joining the Sovereignty Movement five years later.
Price has previously said that if ever jailed again, she would resist being housed with ordinary 'criminal' female prisoners in Hydebank. Unlike Maghaberry, Hydebank has no republican paramilitary wing.
Meanwhile, two Republican Sinn Féin members will appear in Lisburn Magistrates Court today charged with "encouraging terrorism" under section one of the Terrorism Act.
The charges against Cait Trainor (26) from Armagh and Sean Moloney (25), a former republican prisoner from Lurgan, are based on interviews they gave to Channel Four for a documentary which was broadcast last September.
The charges are seen as a new hardline move from police. It is understood this is the first time any republicans in the North has faced such action. In the past, Sinn Féin figures openly supported IRA violence and senior party politicians have continued to justify the Provisional campaign.
In the Channel Four news programme, Cait Trainor said: "I do support the right of every Irish man and woman to participate in armed struggle."
When asked his views about republican paramilitaries, Sean Moloney,said: "I support them 100%. I believe they'e right in what they'e doing. Even if people give up today, the next generation is going to come up and there's going to be another armed campaign."
Sources said the PSNI asked Channel Four for a copy of the programme. It is understood that Channel Four did not hand over anything to police which hadn't been broadcast. The programme can still be viewed on the internet.
Gary Donnelly of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement linked the timing of the charging of the trio to the Queen's visit to the Republic. Republican Sinn Féin condemned the charges.
