Man is jailed for bombing British base

A German court has sentenced a former British soldier and a suspected member of the Provisional IRA to 6½ years in prison for attempted murder for bombing a British army base in Germany.

However, Michael Dickson, a 39-year-old Scottish-born man holding Irish citizenship, could be released next year if German authorities decide his conviction comes under the Good Friday agreement amnesty.

The High Court in Celle, near Hanover, ruled yesterday that Dickson, along with four others, planned and carried out a mortar attack on a British army base in Osnabrück in north-west Germany on June 28th, 1996.

Presiding Judge Wolfgang Siolek said it was "pure chance" that no one was killed or injured in the attack.

"Through his involvement, the accused has made himself guilty of an undetermined number of counts of attempted murder," said Judge Siolek.

Dickson, from Greenock, Scotland, had once served at the Osnabrück base in the seven years as a British soldier until he left the army in 1988.

He was also found guilty of causing an explosion using three home-made mortar bombs that were launched from a parked Ford Transit van outside the base.

Dickson made the mortar bombs from gas canisters and a home-made mixture of ammonium nitrate and sugar.

The court heard how the shrapnel could have caused fatal injuries within a 145-metre radius.

Just one of the three bombs detonated, narrowly missing a petrol station, causing approximately €95,000 worth of damage. There were no injuries among the 150 relatives of British soldiers living in the barracks.

Dickson insisted he was innocent of all charges but admitted during the trial that he rented a holiday apartment and two vans during the planning of the attack.

He was arrested at Ruzyne International Airport in Prague on December 6th last year after arriving on a flight from Dublin. He was identified by an Interpol database after immigration officials checked his passport.

Before he was extradited to Germany in April, he denied he had any connections to any terrorist organisation, in a letter to the Prague Post newspaper.

"I am not a member or have been a member of the IRA," he wrote. "If I am extradited, I will be the only person in jail under the Good Friday agreement."

The court said in the accused's favour that he had no previous convictions, did not stand to gain personally from the attack and played "no leading role" in the Provisional IRA. The court noted that other PIRA members had already been released under the Good Friday agreement and ruled that 6½ was an appropriate sentence.

Ms Barbara Klawitter, Dickson's defence lawyer, agreed not to appeal yesterday but said that after spending one year in custody, he should be released in the next year in line with the amnesty. The German state prosecutor said they were examining the terms of the amnesty.

Since 1973 there have been 28 attacks on British army facilities in Germany that have left six dead and 50 injured.