A north Belfast man wanted by Germany over an IRA mortar bomb attack on a British Army base has been extradited from Spain, it emerged today.
Spanish prosecutors said Leonard Jospeh Hardy (44) was flown to Frankfurt and handed over to federal police on Monday.
He is married to Donna Maguire from Newry who was convicted of the same attack on the British base in Osnabruck in August 1989.
Mr Hardy was arrested last August in a hotel in the Spanish holiday resort of Torremolinos on a European arrest warrant. He is suspected of taking part in the attack on the British Army's Quebec barracks in Osnabruck in 1989, in which 12 bombs were planted.
Prosecutors claim he was one of at least five IRA members that planned the attack, planting the bombs - made of a total of 265lbs of military-grade plastic explosives - around the base.
One exploded but caused no injuries, while the others malfunctioned, prosecutors said. Four others involved in the attack were convicted in Germany in 1995 of attempted murder and sentenced to several years in prison.
Mr Hardy had been living in Co Louth when he went to Torremolinos last year on holiday. He was arrested at the Hotel Sol Principe where he had been staying.
Sinn Fein TD Arthur Morgan criticised Mr Hardy's arrest in August and said the alleged offences occurred before the Belfast Agreement.
"Reports indicate that he has been arrested in Spain whilst on holiday on the foot of an extradition warrant from Germany which relates to matters over a decade ago.
"It is my firm view this man should be released and allowed to return home to his family in Ireland without any further delay."
PA