The World : Belfast Court Frees Eight

The Court of Appeal in Belfast freed eight Londonderry men who had been convicted of terrorist activities on the basis of testimony from an Irish Republican Army informer. The justices, noting that the informer, Robert Quigley, had been granted immunity, called him an “evasive, devious, inventive and lying witness.” The men were found guilty two years ago of crimes including attempted murder, causing explosions and IRA membership. The court said it did not consider the holding of a new trial to be appropriate. Meanwhile, three policemen at a pub set afire by a gasoline bomb in a Roman Catholic section of Londonderry were hurt by flying debris from sniper fire.