Loyalist killer Michael Stone was today charged with five counts of attempted murder over his attack on Stormont Buildings yesterday.
Stone (51) - who appeared before Belfast Magistrates' Court - was also charged with possession of explosives with intent to endanger life, possession of an imitation firearm and possession of articles for terrorist purposes, including nail bombs, an axe and a garrotte.
Stone was remanded in custody until December 22nd. The former leading Loyalist, who suffers from bad arthritis, hobbled into the dock on a crutch and stood solemn-faced, surrounded by a heavy force of uniformed police, as the charges were put to him.
Before being led from the dock, he shouted out: "No sell-out. No power-sharing with the Sinners, they are war criminals. "Ulster is not for sale, no surrender."
Yesterday's security scare forced Assembly members to abandon their first meeting since last month's St Andrews Agreement plan for reviving power sharing was launched by Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
There was also confusion inside the Stormont chamber yesterday when it appeared the Democratic Unionist Party leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, had refused to declare he would be his party's nominee for First Minister next March if all sides kept to the timescale of the accord.
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain had warned that if the DUP failed to make its intention clear, the Assembly would be dissolved and the British and Irish Governments would implement their Plan B.
The Government later accepted comments made by Mr Paisley to the Press Association, clarifying his position.
Stone came to prominence in 1988 when he launched an audacious gun and grenade attack on the funeral of the three IRA members shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar.
He killed three people and injured a number more. He was jailed for a total of 700 years with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 30 years.
However he was released on licence in June 2000 under the terms of the Belfast Agreement, which emptied Northern Ireland's prisons of some 800 convicted terrorists.
For a time Stone became a Loyalist folk hero
- the attack on the IRA funeral at Milltown Cemetery on the Falls Road was also carried out in the full glare of the cameras. More recently he has been shunned by Loyalist paramilitary groups.