The first LVF prisoner has been released from the Maze Prison under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Lindsay Robb, who was a member of the PUP's Stormont talks team which met the then Northern minister, Mr Michael Ancram, in early 1995, was freed yesterday after serving more than one-third of a 10-year prison sentence for conspiring to run guns for the UVF.
Mr Robb had transferred to Maghaberry Prison in April 1997 from Scotland. Ten months later he requested, and was granted, a transfer from Maghaberry to the LVF wing in the Maze.
In July 1995 Mr Robb was arrested in Airdrie after a surveillance operation uncovered a plan to smuggle weapons and ammunition into Northern Ireland.
At his trial at Glasgow's High Court in December 1995, Mr Robb denied being any part of the plot. But the court was told the crown believed him to be the principal organiser. The court also heard evidence from MI5 agents involved in the surveillance.
The judge, Lord Sutherland, said he believed that, had it not been for Mr Robb, the conspiracy would not have occurred. When passing sentence, he added: "For someone purporting to take part in the peace process on the one hand and to indulge in conspiracy to acquire arms on the other is particularly distasteful".
The first LVF prison release comes less than three months after the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, officially recognised the LVF ceasefire declared last May. The loyalist paramilitary group is also the only one to have decommissioned weapons.
There are now only 18 LVF prisoners held in the Maze. The next release is due this April, but the remaining LVF prisoners are expected to remain in custody until the final early-release date of July 2000.