One of two Belfast men arrested earlier this week for questioning about an attempt to kill former IRA informer Martin McGart land was among IRA prisoners released early under the terms of the Belfast Agreement, it has been learned.
The man, who was arrested in Glasgow on Wednesday morning, had been serving a 15-year prison term imposed in 1993 for bombing and attempted murder charges. He was among a large contingent of prisoners released earlier this year.
He is Scottish and was one of the IRA's leading bomb-makers in Belfast from early 1991 to the time of his arrest.
A 32-year-old north Belfast man was also arrested in Belfast for questioning about the attack on Mr McGartland.
The two men were flown to Tyneside and are being questioned by Northumbria police under the police and criminal evidence legislation.
This allows their detention for questioning for three days before being charged or released.
Sinn Fein has complained about the arrest of the Belfast man, who owns a taxi company in north Belfast.
The local Sinn Fein representative, Mr Gerry Kelly, said the arrest had caused "considerable damage" to his business. He added: "Once again the RUC is involved in activities which run counter to the peace process and can only cause difficulties for those attempting to break the present political impasse."
The two men are being questioned by members of a detective unit in Tyneside set up to investigate the attempted assassination of Mr McGartland on June 10th.
He was shot seven times in the attack and survived only because a neighbour acted quickly and applied compression dressings to his wounds.
It was Mr McGartland's second escape from an IRA attempt to kill him. The previous occasion was in Belfast in 1991 when he was uncovered as an RUC agent.
He subsequently wrote two books about his experiences, 50 Dead Men Walking and Dead Man Walking.
Another IRA member-turned-informant who also wrote about his experienced was assassinated by the IRA at the start of this year. Mr Eamon Collins, from Newry, was beaten and stabbed to death by IRA members in February.
Neither the murder of Mr Collins, nor the attack on Mr McGartland, was admitted by the IRA. However, security sources in Northern Ireland and the Republic have confirmed the IRA was responsible. There has been no indication that these, or a number of other murders committed by the IRA, or the importation of weapons from the US since the Belfast Agreement, has had any impact on the issue of prisoner releases.
The Belfast Agreement commits both governments to an accelerated programme of prisoner releases for members of paramilitary organisations maintaining a "complete and unequivocal ceasefire".