Leading loyalist 'to enter politics'

Johnny Adair was jailed for directing terrorism

Convicted loyalist paramilitary leader Johnny Adair is "almost certain" to stand for election to the Northern Ireland Assembly next year, the BBC has learned.

A former leader in the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association (UDA) said he had spoken to Adair about entering the world of politics.

Adair, 38, was released from prison in May after serving a sentence for directing terrorism.

A leading member of the outlawed Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), Adair was recently involved in talks with the Northern Ireland secretary about violence at sectarian interfaces in Belfast.

On Wednesday night, Andy Tyrie - once described as the UDA's supreme commander - told the BBC Adair was "seriously considering anything he can do for his community".

He added: "He thinks at this stage, he'd be far better being a politician and looking after his area.

Adair was freed under licence in 1999

"He feels the lower Shankill, in particular, has been neglected because they didn't seem to have the political representation they required at that time."

Adair, from the Shankill Road in west Belfast, was sentenced in 1996 to 16 years imprisonment for directing terrorism by the UFF.

He was freed under licence in 1999, under the early release scheme which was part of the Good Friday Agreement.

Adair had served barely a third of his sentence, and emerged into a world of paramilitary ceasefires, declaring he would be working for his community.

But by the summer of 2000 - just a few months after his release - he was already considered by the police as a risk to peace.

He had been pictured at street protests in Belfast after a ban was announced on the Orange Order's Drumcree march along the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown.

His early release licence was revoked in August 2000 by the then Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson, after the police said that Adair had been involved in raising tensions during a violent loyalist feud in the Shankill area.

Adair was considered one of the key figures in securing the support of loyalist prisoners for the peace process, when former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam made her visit to the Maze in 1998.