UP to eight loyalist prisoners, at least one of whom was previously aligned with the Ulster Volunteer Force, are expected to be transferred from Maghaberry Prison to the Maze.
A request from the Maghaberry inmates to join members of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) in the Maze is likely to be accepted, according to Northern Prison Service sources. Four of the prisoners were threatening to continue a hunger and thirst strike if they were not moved.
Those due to be transferred are former medium-risk loyalist prisoners, "high-risk non-terrorists", and a UVF prisoner. They will join the LVF wing at one of the Maze H-Blocks. The dissident loyalist wing was established after a Portadown prisoner, Billy Wright, was transferred there from Maghaberry.
There are already 16 prisoners in the LVF wing which is segregated from other loyalist and republican prisoners, although the LVF inmates are housed in the same H-Block as the INLA but in separate wings.
The LVF is comprised of dissident loyalists from the Portadown area who do not accept the authority of the Combined Loyalist Military Command. It was blamed for the recent sectarian murder of Mr Sean Brown in Bellaghy, Co Derry, and admitted it was responsible for the bomb found in Dundalk last weekend.
There is concern among mainstream loyalists that the LVF could become a focus for paramilitaries disenchanted with the current CLMC ceasefire, notwithstanding its highly-qualified nature. The fact that one of those seeking transfer to the LVF wing is a UVF member will add to the concern.
Recently the LVF warned that if the Irish Government continued to "interfere" in Northern Ireland affairs it would start a bombing campaign in the South.
