Senior loyalist Andre Shoukri has won his appeal against a six-year jail sentence on a firearms charge.
However three judges in Belfast's Appeal Court reserved their decision on a plea to reduce Shoukri's concurrent two year sentence for having a gun withouta firearms certificate at Rathcoole a year ago and the alleged UDA Brigadier in North Belfast is still not free.
As Shoukri was taken back to Magheraberry jail handcuffed to a prisonofficer he said: "Justice has been done."
Asked when he expected to be free, he replied: "I'm hopeful I will be out ina few weeks."
Shoukri (25), from Sunningdale Gardens, Belfast, was convicted last July ofpossessing a gun and ammunition in suspicious circumstances.
The trial judge, Lord Justice McCollum, had earlier acquitted him on acharge of possessing the gun with intent to endanger life after the court heardthat Shoukri claimed he had the gun for his own protection because of threatsto his life which had been conveyed to him by police.
Arthur Harvey, QC, told the Appeal Court in September that no offence wascommitted if an accused could establish that he had a weapon for a reasonableobject - to protect his life.