Four men with Irish backgrounds, accused of conspiring to make pipe-bombs, were granted bail yesterday after an Old Bailey judge in London was told that the main prosecution witness had lied to police.
Mr Michael O'Kane, prosecuting, said the evidence against the four "does not at present support the realistic prospect of conviction" and no proven links with terrorism had been discovered.
The defendants, Mr Alan McGovern (31); Mr Patrick Dunne (29); Mr Patrick Gallagher (45); and Mr Robert Lee (45), were held as Category A prisoners. They are expected to be released from Belmarsh Prison in Woolwich, London, today.
The case will be listed again at the Old Bailey on April 24th, when charges against the four are expected to be dropped.
The men were arrested in a dawn raid on February 1st at Sutherland Road, Ealing. Mr O'Kane said officers were acting on a tip-off by a police informer that the four had been responsible for manufacturing between 25 and 30 pipe-bombs.
However, he added that the informer, a Turkish man, could no longer be relied upon as a "witness of truth".