A French court gave two Frenchmen and an Irishman light prison sentences yesterday for hiding and helping an IRA squad preparing bomb attacks in Britain two years ago. They were freed as their pre-trial detention exceeded the sentences.
Belfast-born Paul MacGarrigle (41), who had been arrested in July 1996, was given a seven-month sentence with another 11 months suspended for associating with the IRA and having a pistol. A state prosecutor had recommended a four-year term on charges of criminal conspiracy.
Jean-Louis Becker (48) was given a one-year sentence with another two years suspended, while Franck Lebret-Richer (45) was sentenced to three months and 15 months suspended.
MacGarrigle was working in a Paris cafe when he was arrested on information from British police. This followed the dismantling of an eight-member IRA unit in London.
Before coming to France, MacGarrigle had been jailed in Britain several times on IRA-related charges. He received a 14-year prison sentence for attempted murder in 1975.
Becker was arrested in March last year on information after the IRA bombing in Manchester in June which injured more than 200 people and destroyed a shopping centre. The prosecutor had recommended a five-year sentence.
Lebret-Richer, a taxi driver, was accused of hiding two IRA members at his home. The prosecutor had recommended a suspended sentence of 18 months to two years for Lebret-Richer.