Adam Busby, who describes himself as the founder of the republican Scottish National Liberation Army (SNLA), was convicted last month by a jury in Dublin of sending email threats from a public library to BAA at Heathrow claiming bombs were on two flights to New York.
Busby, 61, has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair. He moved to Ireland in 1980 after orchestrating a series of minor terror attacks in Scotland against military sites, oil companies and high-profile public figures using primitive letter bombs.
He used his base in Dublin to organise further hoaxes involving alleged anthrax weapons and fake bombs, and real attacks including incendiary devices in parcels, by influencing other hardline nationalists in Scotland and England.
The SNLA's targets included Lady Thatcher, Douglas Hurd, Cherie Blair, the Prince of Wales, Prince William and former Scottish first minister Jack McConnell. No-one was injured.
He was convicted of two similar hoax offences 13 years ago by a special criminal court, set up originally to deal with Irish terror groups, after making threatening phone calls to the press.
In the latest case, Busby was found guilty of causing "annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety" by claiming in 2006 – at the height of fears about Islamist terror attacks against airlines – that bombs were on two flights to New York. A BAA security manager said both cases were assessed as low risk.
Judge Desmond Hogan said these were serious offences but on the lower end of the scale, because the airport authorities did not believe the threat to be credible. Flight crews were not told.
Busby, who denied the offences, was sentenced to four years in jail, with the last two suspended because of his age and health. The court also heard that other threats and acts of terrorism claimed by the SNLA had originated in Ireland since Busby's arrival, for which he has not been charged.
In 2008 Wayne Cook, an Englishman from Manchester, was convicted of sending miniature vodka bottles spiked with caustic soda to various public figures on behalf of the SNLA. His Scottish co-accused, Steven Robinson, admitted similar charges at an earlier hearing.
Busby's son Adam Busby Jr, from Paisley, was then convicted in May 2009 of sending suspect packages to the Scottish National party leader and now first minister, Alex Salmond; the SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh; Glasgow city council and the English-born Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Mike Rumbles.
Det Supt Diarmuid O'Sullivan, of the Irish police, said Busby had fled to Ireland in 1980 after being charged with criminal damage against Ministry of Defence property and had a string of previous convictions in Scotland for minor offences. The SNLA was declared illegal in Ireland in 2005.
Guardian Unlimited |
