Three IRA prisoners who escaped from Northern Ireland's Maze Prison lost the latest stage in their battle against extradition proceedings, in a court in San Francisco yesterday.
US District Judge Charles Legge also ordered Kevin Artt, Paul Brennan, and Terry Kirby - among 38 IRA terrorists who escaped in 1983 - to surrender to the court yesterday, said lawyer Julia Alloggiamento, for Artt.
The ruling is a major setback for the three in their bid to avoid being sent back to prison in Ulster.
Another Maze escaper, Jimmy Smyth, was brought back to Northern Ireland last year, after losing a final appeal against his extradition, which had also been ordered by a San Francisco court.
Artt is from the Ardoyne area of north Belfast, and Brennan and Kirby are from west Belfast.
A Sinn Fein spokesman said: ''People will be disappointed here and in Irish America if there are moves to deport or extradite these men.''
Ms Alloggiamento said: ''Lawyers for the individuals will be appealing both the bail issue and the extradition.''
The three men fled to the west coast of the US after the mass breakout from Ulster's top security Maze prison, in which a prison officer was fatally wounded.
Like Smyth, they settled in California, living comfortably until they were traced and extradition proceedings launched.
Artt, who was serving life for murder, has been living in San Diego and has a young daughter.
Asked how he would view yesterday's setback, Ms Alloggiamento said: ''Mr Artt has been very, very positive.''
Terry Kirby, also serving life for murder, settled in San Francisco and also has a family in the US.
Paul Brennan was serving a 16-year sentence for possession of explosives and was working as a builder in San Francisco.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article