THREE men in jail in the US on arms conspiracy charges are to be sent back to Ireland to complete their sentences. The US Department of Justice is said to have given its approval under an international convention.
One of the men, Peter Eamon Maguire, was extradited from Ireland to the US in 1994, where he was sentenced to 70 months for conspiracy to export arms to Northern Ireland for use by the IRA to shoot down British helicopters.
Maguire (60), a former electronics engineer with Aer Lingus, was the first person to be extradited to the US from Ireland on charges related to IRA activity. He is due for release in 1998.
The two other men, Sam Miller and Michael McNaught, who are serving sentences on conspiracy charges, are to be sent back to Northern Ireland to complete their sentences.
Maguire, who is a native of Co Monaghan, was arrested in February 1993 at his home in Clondalkin, Co Dublin, following a warrant from the FBI accusing him of conspiracy to export bomb parts and ground to air missiles from the US. He had been described in US court hearings as an important IRA leader and technical expert.
Maguire had been indicted with four other persons in Boston in 1989. The other persons were convicted in 1990, but Maguire went to Nigeria for several years and then to South Africa where he was arrested in December 1992 but later allowed go to Ireland.
Maguire's plea against the US extradition warrant of a political offence was rejected by the High Court in Dublin in December 1993.
In April 1994, Maguire pleaded guilty in the US District Court in Boston to three counts in connection with a conspiracy in the late 1970s to build and export anti helicopter missiles. Imposing sentence the judge referred to a letter to him from Maguire in which he stated that he abhorred violence and supported the current peace initiative in Ireland.
Maguire's transfer to an Irish jail follows Ireland's recent ratification of an international convention allowing Irish citizens sentenced abroad to serve part of their sentences in Ireland.