Sinn Fein offers ‘British spy bug’ for sale

BELFAST - The Irish Republican party Sinn Fein has put up for auction on the Internet what it says is a bugging device used by Britain to spy on one of its offices.

Bidding has been brisk, it says, the price is now up to $US1900 ($NZ2700) and the money will be used to fund "the campaign for Irish unity and freedom".

"This auction is for part of a British MI5 bugging device found hidden in the floorboards of a Sinn Fein office in Belfast in September 2004," it said in a statement on Sinnfeinbookshop.com.

"This is a unique opportunity," it added. "A historical item such as this has never before been made available and it's highly unlikely that it will happen again."

The successful bidder will also be given a handwritten letter of authentication from Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish Republican Army's political ally campaigning to oust Britain from Northern Ireland.

"The British make it very hard to make peace when all this is going on," Adams said after the alleged discovery in a party office in the Republican heartland of West Belfast.

- REUTERS