Belfast militant convicted of N.Ireland attack

[ZingPao]

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press Writer

DUBLIN, Ireland – A Belfast judge convicted a notorious Protestant militant Friday of trying to kill Catholic politicians during his bizarre — and internationally broadcast — attempt to attack the Northern Ireland Assembly two years ago.

Justice Donal Deeny rejected as unbelievable Michael Stone's claim that he intended his November 2006 assault on Northern Ireland's power-sharing legislature to be an act of cutting-edge performance art. Stone denied any plan to try to kill Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, leaders of the Irish Republican Army-linked Sinn Fein party.

Deeny said the evidence was overwhelming — including handwritten letters that Stone himself had sent to journalists beforehand — that the Protestant extremist had hoped to kill both politicians if he managed to breach security at Stormont Parliamentary Building in Belfast.

Instead Stone, crippled by arthritis, was wrestled into submission by two guards at the main entrance. They trapped him partially in revolving doors, twisting his arms to immobilize him, as international news cameras captured the moment.

Minutes later police pinned him to the ground and recovered an ax, three knives, a strangulation cord, a fake handgun and eight homemade grenades.

Deeny convicted Stone, 53, of two counts of attempted murder and a dozen more criminal counts related to his possession of myriad weapons.

Stone won a cult following among anti-Catholic extremists in 1988 after he launched a solo gun-and-grenade attack on an IRA funeral, killing three and wounding dozens. He won parole from prison as part of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord — but kept expressing a desire to kill Adams and McGuinness.

Deeny did not immediately announce any additional prison sentence for Stone. Immediately after the botched Stormont strike, Britain returned Stone indefinitely to prison to resume serving his sentence for the 1988 cemetery attack.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081114/...vcAb98ZyQGw_IE