Derry republican prisoner Tony Taylor who is languishing behind bars on the word of MI%
DERRY republicans are outraged after Tony Taylor – who is incarcerated in Maghaberry jail on the word of MI5 spooks – has been denied release from prison.
The decision was relayed to the father-of-threes shocked family back home in Derry this afternoon.
It follows a two-day hearing took place at court 13 in Laganside Court Complex in Belfast last week to decide whether he should be freed.
Mr Taylor was returned to prison in March 2016, on the orders of the then Secretary of State Theresa Villiers.
It followed a top secret briefing to her by the head of MI5 in the North of Ireland
NIO securocrats said his licence was revoked by the Parole Commission because of the risk he posed to the public.
Tony Taylor was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 1994 after he was seriously injured in a premature explosion in Derry.
The PIRA inmate was released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
He had been in prison since August 2011 while awaiting trial for possessing a semi-automatic 597 Magnum rifle.
He took part in a so-called “dirty protest” while in jail.
The former Ulsterbus driver pleaded guilty in 2014 and at Belfast Crown Court he was sentenced to three years in custody, and four on licence.
By that stage, he had already been in jail for almost three years.
The night he was jailed dissident republicans in Derry hijacked an Ulsterbus.
The 48-year-old is currently detained at Maghaberry Prison.
However, concerns have been raised by those campaigning for Mr Taylor’s release that his legal team were excluded from hearing evidence against him, which was heard in a closed session.
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