Loyalists angry over jail conditions

LOYALISTS have threatened to take the British Government to court over conditions for paramilitary prisoners at a high security Northern Ireland jail.

Representatives of Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando inmates held under new £7 million arrangements at Maghaberry Prison claimed they were being discriminated against.

Loyalists and republicans at the bitterly divided complex near Lisburn, Co Antrim, have been separated amid major security fears.

Prisoners who demanded segregation were allowed to be kept apart once they signed up to the terms laid out by the authorities.

But the Post Conflict Prisoners Support Group claimed exercise and health facilities in the cell blocks were not up to standard.