Seán Gerard Hughes is a farmer from Dromintee, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, who has been named as a former member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) Army Council.[1]
Describing him as a "hardliner" in the Republican movement,[1] [2] The Sunday Times reported that Hughes had served on the IRA's general headquarters staff (GHQ) as operations officer, but left in 2002 when appointed to the Army Council.[1] Speaking under Parliamentary privilege in the British House of Commons, Member of Parliament for Belfast East, Peter Robinson, named Hughes as a member of the Army Council. In 2005 The Sunday Times reported Hughes had resigned his position "after losing interest in the peacetime IRA."[2]
In 2001 Hughes was charged on counts of false accounting and obtaining by deception.[3] He filed an application under human rights legislation, claiming he could not receive a fair trial in Northern Ireland after his picture, identified as an IRA member, was included in a book by Toby Harnden.[3] The application was rejected, but the case was moved to Belfast Crown Court where Hughes was convicted of benefit fraud.[3] [4]
Hughes and several associates subsequently had their assets frozen by the Serious Organised Crime Agency.[5] [6] [7]