Notorious N. Irish Loyalist Guerrilla Is Among 80 Being Freed From Jail

Michael Stone, one of the most ruthless guerrillas of Northern Ireland’s years of conflict, will be released early from jail today under a scheme to cement the British province’s uneasy peace.

He is one of about 80 guerrillas who will be freed this week, virtually emptying Britain’s notorious Maze prison near Belfast, the provincial capital. The facility has been home to the most hardened Roman Catholic and Protestant guerrillas over the years.

As part of the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, 340 Catholic republicans and rival Protestant prisoners have already walked out of the Maze.

Stone, who will be released with another loyalist inmate, has served 11 years of a 30-year term for crimes including the infamous Milltown Cemetery murders in which three Catholics were killed in a 1988 attack on a funeral for Irish Republican Army guerrillas.

Prison authorities say the top-security Maze will soon be mothballed.

As politicians strive to draw a final line under 30 years of sectarian violence, the question of guerrillas and their arms is seen as the most critical issue to cementing lasting peace.

The early jail releases were aimed at bringing guerrillas who fought for and against British rule in line with the peace process. But the plan touches a raw nerve among relatives of the police, security forces and ordinary people who were killed.