Self-confessed former IRA member Leonard Joseph Hardy has been sentenced to six years in prison for planning and carrying out a 1989 bomb attack on a British military base in Germany.
The regional high court in Celle, near Hanover, announced the verdict yesterday morning, two weeks after Belfast-born Hardy (45) confessed to the charges of attempted murder and attempting to cause an explosion at the Osnabrück army base in western Germany.
The court justified the sentence noting Hardy's "disregard for human life" and his "high criminal energy", spending months scouting potential targets in Germany.
However, it also noted as mitigating circumstances his full confession to the court and his decision to turn himself over to German authorities in January this year.
Hardy, who has British and Irish citizenship, was arrested while on holidays with his family in Spain last August. He was released by Spanish authorities and returned to Ireland but then presented himself to officials in Frankfurt in January before being released on €20,000 bail.
The court also noted the passing of time since 1989 and the peace efforts since the Belfast Agreement.
The state prosecutor had called for a seven-year sentence and the defence for no more than three years.
During the trial, Hardy's defence lawyer said they would not appeal the sentence.
In his statement to the court, Hardy admitted he was a member of a Provisional IRA unit that carried out the attack on the British army camp between 1am and 2am on June 19th, 1989.
Hardy and four others mounted five explosive devices containing a total of 120kg of Semtex on the three exterior walls of block 12 of the the barracks, said the state prosecutor, with the aim of "killing as many soldiers of the British army as possible".
The perpetrators were disturbed by a base employee as they set the detonators, and a struggle followed. Five soldiers sleeping inside the block woke up and left the room. Just one of the devices detonated a few minutes later, causing around €77,000 worth of damage and partly destroying the building but causing no loss of life.
Donna Maguire went on trial with three others in connection with the attack in 1995.
All four were found guilty and given sentences of between nine and 10 years but they were immediately released after the verdict, having served nearly two-thirds of the sentence in remand prisons.