A leading Belfast republican, Mr Brendan McFarlane, was freed on £100,000 bail by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday.
Mr McFarlane (46), of Jamaica Street, Belfast, was arrested near the Border last week and later charged in connection with the 1983 kidnap of the supermarket executive, Mr Don Tidey.
Yesterday Det Supt John McElligot, who opposed bail, said that Mr McFarlane's fingerprints were found on three items recovered from the hide-out at Derrada Wood in Co Leitrim where Mr Tidey was held for most of his 23 days in captivity.
A trainee garda and an Irish soldier were killed in a shoot-out with the kidnappers when Mr Tidey was rescued.
But the accused said in evidence that he would attend his trial and face the charges against him.
Mr Justice Barr, presiding, said the court considered that Mr McFarlane, having served 19 1/2 years in prison, had "demonstrated a real intention to continue his rehabilitation in society".
Mr McFarlane was charged last week with falsely imprisoning Mr Tidey between November 24th and December 16th, 1983, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose at Derrada Wood, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, between November 25th and December 16th, 1983.
Opposing bail, Det Supt McElligot said the defendant was not a resident of the jurisdiction, and he believed he would not turn up for his trial because of the gravity of the offence and the weight of the evidence against him.
He said Mr McFarlane was unlawfully at large at the time of the alleged offences, having escaped from the Maze Prison in September, 1983. He was extradited from Holland back to Northern Ireland on December 3rd, 1986, Det Supt McElligot said.
Cross-examined by Mr Hugh Hartnett BL, defending, Det Supt McElligot said he was not aware of any attempt to extradite Mr McFarlane from Northern Ireland to the Republic or to try him in the North for the Tidey kidnap under the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act.
Det Garda James Sheridan said he arrested Mr McFarlane as he travelled northwards on a bus which was stopped at a permanent Garda checkpoint on the main Dublin-Belfast road.
He said he had received information from Garda Headquarters that a man fitting Mr McFarlane's description was on the bus and he was also aware that he was wanted in connection with the events at Ballinamore.
Mr McFarlane said in evidence that he had served 19 1/2 years in prison after being convicted in 1975 and given a life sentence for "an explosion causing the death of five people".
He had been given temporary parole from the Maze since 1993 and had visited Donegal, Galway, Sligo and Dublin at various times.
In March 1997 the then Northern secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, allowed him to take part in a prerelease scheme and he had been released on licence from prison and had found work at the Falls Community Council in west Belfast.
Mr McFarlane said at the time of his arrest he had been travelling back to Belfast from Dublin after spending Christmas and the New Year in Copenhagen with his Danish girlfriend.
He said he was not aware until after his arrest that the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, had approved and signed his final licence for release and he was due to sign the papers himself on the day he was arrested.
Mr Justice Barr said that Mr McFarlane appeared to have been regarded as "a good and trustworthy prisoner" by the Northern Ireland Prison Service.
The court freed him on two independent bonds of £60,000 and £40,000 and his own bond of £1,000 and ordered him to report twice a month to Dundalk Garda station. He was remanded on bail until March 10th next.