Extremist charged with attempted murder of Sinn Fein leaders

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- The Protestant extremist who triggered a panicked evacuation of the Northern Ireland Assembly was charged Saturday with attempting to murder four people, including Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.

Michael Stone, who was tackled by unarmed guards Friday at the entrance to Stormont Parliamentary Building, was arraigned in Belfast Magistrates Court on five charges of attempted murder. He also was charged with possession of weapons for terrorist purposes, including explosives, several nail bombs, an ax, a strangulation device and a fake handgun.

State prosecutors said Stone was charged with attempting to kill Adams and McGuinness, the two senior figures in the Irish Republican Army-linked party, and the two security guards who confronted him at the Stormont entrance.

The fifth count of attempted murder was a blanket charge of "persons unknown" intended to cover everyone else in the building, including the entire 108-member assembly.

No plea offered

Stone, 51, offered no plea during the 10-minute hearing. He walked stiffly and slowly with the aid of a cane, reflecting his advanced arthritis.

As he was escorted from the dock, Stone denounced efforts to forge a cross-community administration led by the Protestants of the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein, the major Catholic-backed party in Northern Ireland. Such power-sharing was the central aim of the U.S.-brokered Good Friday peace accord of 1998.

The assembly debate Stone interrupted Friday was focused on whether Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley would accept a nomination to the top power-sharing post. The British and Irish governments had long billed Friday as the final deadline for a deal. But Paisley refused, citing Sinn Fein's refusal to accept the authority of the Northern Ireland police force. Britain nonetheless welcomed Paisley's statement because he didn't rule out accepting the post in the future.

"No sell-out! No power-sharing with the Sinners!" Stone said, using the common Belfast shorthand for Sinn Fein. "They are war criminals! Ulster is not for sale! No surrender!"

Detectives pressed the attempted murder charges against Stone after questioning him overnight at the police's main interrogation facility in Antrim, west of Belfast. Magistrate Bernadette Kelly ordered Stone to be held without bail until his next scheduled court appearance Dec. 22.

In an interview three weeks ago with Ulster Television, Stone recounted his desire to kill Sinn Fein leaders as well as the current London mayor, Ken Livingstone, a veteran Sinn Fein supporter.

"I regret not having assassinated Adams, McGuinness and, to be honest, I regret not having assassinated Ken Livingstone," Stone told Ulster Television.

Stone has been an icon of Protestant extremism in Northern Ireland since March 16, 1988, when, armed with handguns and grenades, he single-handedly attacked more than 20,000 mourners at an IRA funeral. He killed three people, including an IRA member, and wounded about 60 others before running out of bullets and grenades. Mourners came close to beating him to death before police intervened. As on Friday, his actions were filmed and broadcast internationally.

Stone was convicted of murder, but paroled in mid-2000 as part of the Good Friday pact.