Issam Hijjawi Bassalat arrested on charges of assisting New IRA in 2020 Ophthalmologist says undercover agent convinced him to speak at ‘army council’ in Belfast believing it was public forum LONDON: A British-Palestinian doctor has said an MI5 agent tried to ensnare him as part of a plan to arrest multiple members of the New Irish Republican Army. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat, 65, a doctor and political activist, was arrested in August 2020 at Heathrow Airport in London for alleged involvement with Saoradh, considered the political wing of the Irish terrorist group. He claims to have been set up by Dennis McFadden, an undercover MI5 operative, after McFadden drove him to an “army council” meeting at a rented house in Northern Ireland in July 2020. Bassalat, who worked for the National Health Service in Scotland since 2010 as an ophthalmologist, said he was asked by McFadden to speak at a public meeting in 2020 in Belfast after the doctor was told he would need to travel to the Northern Irish capital from his home in Scotland to collect a new UK passport for his daughter. But on the day of the meeting, Bassalat, who said he previously attended Saoradh public meetings to discuss non-violent and democratic political change, claims to have been driven out of the city to the secluded site to meet a handful of individuals who, it is believed, included New IRA members. “It is clear he was lured to Belfast on a false pretence. For a prolonged period, Dennis McFadden persuaded him to come to meetings, kept in contact with him on visits to Scotland and finally brought him into the middle of an MI5 undercover operation,” Bassalat’s lawyer Gavin Booth told The Times. “Despite this attempted entrapment, Dr. Bassalat only spoke to the meeting about the need for peaceful and democratic change. He did not speak in support of violence or terrorism.” Prosecution lawyers argue that Bassalat had been in regular contact with members of the New IRA for years, and had discussed ways of establishing links with other paramilitary groups around the world. Bassalat lost his license to practice medicine in the UK following his arrest, and the father of four has been forced to live off state benefits since he was released from custody from Maghaberry prison near Belfast following a heart attack, where he had been remanded on charges of assisting a terrorist organization. Nine members of Saoradh were arrested in Northern Ireland on the same day as Bassalat was detained in London. McFadden, 54, who held a senior role in Saoradh, has gone into hiding along with his family. A pre-trial hearing discussed how he had slowly won the trust of members of the group over a 15-year period, climbing its ranks, becoming involved in justice campaigns for other arrested members, and even arranging trips abroad and to football matches for other members.