Bail Upheld for Northern Ireland Escapees
A federal appeals court upheld bail for three escapees from a Northern Ireland prison during their extradition cases Monday, to promote harmony between U.S. partisans of the factions in Northern Ireland.
Kevin Artt, Terence Kirby and Pol Brennan were among 38 men who escaped from the Maze prison near Belfast in September 1983. Later arrested in California, all three say they were wrongly convicted and would face persecution because of their nationalist views and Catholic religion if extradited.
Final arguments are scheduled to resume Wednesday in the extradition hearings of Artt, convicted of murdering a deputy prison warden, and Kirby, convicted of murdering a gas station attendant. Brennan, convicted of possessing explosives, faces a later hearing.
U.S. District Judge Charles Legge granted bail to all three men in January of this year: $500,000 each for Brennan and Artt and $1 million for Kirby. Each man’s bail is secured partly or entirely by the property of friends and relatives.
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