US deports alleged Irish paramilitary

The United States has deported an Irishman they say was a member of a violent paramilitary group involved in a 1975 killing of an RUC police officer.

John Edward McNicholl was put on a plane to Ireland on Friday and was taken into custody by the authorities on his arrival.

He had been appealing against a deportation order from the US since 1997, saying he was jailed for a crime he did not commit.

The 51-year-old was accused by US officials of having been a member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA).

His final court appeal was denied on July 10, said Garrison Courtney, a spokesman the US Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

McNicholl was accused of killing an RUC police officer and wounding another during an ambush and gun battle in Northern Ireland on July 26, 1975.

In February 1976, police searching a farmhouse for weapons in Dungiven, Co Derry, arrested him and several other men.

Three months later, McNicholl and seven other men tunnelled out of the now-closed Maze Prison near Belfast.

US government prosecutors said McNicholl had entered the US illegally, belonged to a terrorist group and was one of the gunmen who shot the constables.

McNicholl admitted entering the US illegally, but denied any role in the paramilitary group or the 1975 shooting.

He testified during his 1999 deportation hearing that he was active in the non-violent Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, which organised demonstrations and rallies for jobs.

He said he had been targeted by British authorities because of his involvement in that group.