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Albert Luykx Military person

Albert Luykx was a Flemish businessman, living in Ireland, who was involved in the 1970 Arms Crisis.An acquintance of Neil Blaney, he was approached by Captain James Kelly, and asked to help in acquiring arms in Germany with the intention of arming the Irish Republican Army. Luykx was subsequently tried, together with Kelly and Charles Haughey. He claimed that the operation was sanctioned by the Minister for Defence, Jim Gibbons. All four were acquitted. Journalist Vincent Browne, writing of the Arms Crisis in July 2003, said "the gravest injustice was done to Albert Luykx...who never had reason to believe that in lending money to the operation and giving otherwise of his services, he was not acting on behalf of the Irish state".In 1971 it was claimed, under privilege, in the Dáil that Luykx was "a convicted Nazi criminal" who was wanted by the Belgian authorities. A Flemish nationalist, Luykx had escaped from Belgium having been sentenced to death for having denounced people to the secret police during the Second World War.