Charges against Hardy outside the terms of the GFA

The BBC report on Leonard Hardy, extradicted to Germany last month to face charges relating to an IRA bomb attack on a British Army base in Osnabruck in 1989, doesn’t add much to the previous reports noted here on 25 January. But Ireland Online carries more detail, including the point that, if convicted, Hardy can expect to serve a full sentence.From the IOL report

Because his alleged offence was committed in Germany he falls outside the terms of the Good Friday Agreement which has provided for the early release of terrorists convicted for offences committed before it was signed in 1998.

The Northern Ireland Office said that even if Hardy is convicted, and then wins a transfer to a Northern Ireland jail to be nearer relatives, he would have to serve out whatever sentence the German authorities hand down.

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