Three members of the "Real IRA" sentenced to 30 years in prison have had their jail sentences cut by two years by the Appeal Court judges in Britain.
Fintan O'Farrell (41), Declan Rafferty (44), and Michael McDonald (46), were each jailed for 30 years at Woolwich Crown Court in May 2002 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to cause explosions and plotting to secure material for the purposes of terrorism.
The three were arrested by Slovakian police liaising with British detectives in July 2001 after travelling to Slovakia to meet what they believed was a consortium of Iraqi Intelligence officers keen to supply them with cash, weaponry and explosives.
Their contacts were really MI5 agents posing as Iraqi operatives in a ruse to dupe the "Real IRA" into believing they were willing to sponsor their acts of terrorism.
Earlier this week the trio failed in a bid at London's Appeal Court to overturn their convictions.
Lord Justice Hooper, Mr Justice Hedley and Mr Justice Simon rejected their lawyers claims that the extradition process from Slovakia had been unfair and the entire prosecution amounted to an "abuse of process".
However, today the same judges agreed to reduce the trio's jail terms from 30 years to 28 years. The court in London will give reasons for its decision later today.
Ben Emmerson QC, for the trio, argued the 30-year terms imposed on the three "foot soldiers" were "manifestly excessive" given the 20-year sentence passed on McKevitt in Ireland.
Although the barrister accepted that the trio were not victims of "entrapment" by the security services, he said they were caught due to a "ruse conducted in the public interest", which unravelled in "an extraordinary, almost fictional, series of events".