A lawyer for prominent republican Alan Lundy has called for an investigation after allegations that a phone seized from his partner was later used by MI5 to send messages.
Lundy is currently subject to strict bail conditions after being charged in connection with a New IRA gun attack on senior PSNI officer John Caldwell near Omagh in Co Tyrone last year, which left him seriously injured.
Among the charges he is facing is “directing terrorism”.
As part of stringent bail conditions, Mr Lundy is only allowed to use one phone with the number provided to police.
He is also not allowed to associate with co-accused or a list of people the PSNI provided to the court when bail was granted.
However, it has now been claimed that several people have been messaged from a phone owned by Mr Lundy’s partner after it was seized last month.
It is understood recipients immediately became suspicious of the messages, which republicans claim were sent by MI5.
Mr Lundy’s solicitor, Gavin Booth, of Phoenix Law, said the “circumstances of these events raise serious concerns as to who has tried to impersonate our client in order to try and illicit information from others”.
“Whilst PSNI have seized our clients phone one would also wonder if this is the work of the security services rather than the PSNI,” he said.
Details of the of the messages emerged before Mr Lundy appeared in court last month following breach of bail.
A judge later released him back into bail.
The PSNI was contacted.
