THREE IRA terrorists were freed last night after a High Court judge rejected a legal challenge by Home Secretary Jack Straw to block their release from jail.
Paul Kavanagh, Thomas Quigley, and Gerard McDonnell, a cousin of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, were released early under the terms of the Good Friday peace agreement. A fourth prisoner, Brighton bomber Patrick Magee, can be released from the Maze in June.
The trio ran through the gates of the Maze prison soon after 9.30pm - a little more than an hour after news of the courtroom verdict was relayed to the jail in County Down.
They were greeted by friends and relatives and immediately sped off in three cars in the direction of Belfast, 13 miles away.
Mr Straw mounted a legal challenge to block their release on Monday, but a judge at the Northern Ireland High Court in Belfast ruled in favour of the Sentencing Review Commission, which rules on release dates.
Sinn Fein representatives, who earlier condemned the Home Secretary for being vindictive and petty, were jubilant last night. Outside the court, the party's chief whip, Mr Alex Maskey, said: ''The person who should hang his head in shame is Jack Straw.''
Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Andrew Mackay said the Home Secretary's actions showed the Government was in ''disarray''.
He declared: ''This has been an embarrassing fiasco from start to finish. The Government should have made clear some time ago that terrorist prisoners should not be released while the paramilitaries continued to refuse to give up any of their guns and bombs.''
The Home Office said in a statement last night: ''We made it
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clear that we were seeking urgent clarification of the law (The Northern Ireland Sentences Act 1998) as it applies to prisoners transferred from England and Wales to Northern Ireland. That clarification has now been obtained and we accept the court's decision.''
Mr Justice Girvan said in court
there was no question that the Northern Ireland Sentence Review Commission had acted in bad faith. He said the wisdom or fairness of the 1998 Northern Ireland Sentencing Act, which set up the early release scheme, was not a matter for the court and added: ''History will be the ultimate judge.''
The SDLP's security spokesman, Mr Alex Attwood, said: ''We must now proceed not just on this issue but all issues to fully implement the Good Friday Agreement. The Home Secretary must now accept this judgment and move on.''
Yesterday's court action followed an extraordinary move by the Home Secretary on Monday to try and obtain a court order blocking the releases.
He argued that four of the IRA's most feared and ruthless terrorists should not be freed yet and that they should spend more time behind bars.
Downing Street had insisted the move was not political, with negotiations over the stalled peace process at a critical stage.
It was the first time the British Government had openly intervened in the prisoner release process which has so far seen more than 200 former paramilitaries walk free.
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