NI Secretary warns - others "close to the line"

Loyalist turf wars "not linked to prisoner release scheme"

Lawyers for Johnny Adair, the convicted loyalist paramilitary leader re-arrested last night, decided this afternoon they WILL challenge the decision to send him back to jail.

The surprise move to take him back into custody came last night when the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Mandelson, decided that he posed too great a threat to public safety to be allowed to 'roam around spreading the sort of mayhem and terror' seen in recent days.

Johnny Adair - evidence of

Mr Mandelson told the World at One that he had evidence that the one-time Ulster Defence Association commander had already breached the conditions of his license - and that he posed a future threat.

Mr Mandelson will now have to produce that evidence for scrutiny - and it will be subject to challenge by Mr Adair. Though, as the Northern Ireland Secretary points out, the legislation gives him very wide discretion.

"Close to the line"

Other released prisoners, he added, were in danger of suffering the same fate.

With a large security operation in progress,

Loyalist areas still calm

the Shankill Road area of Belfast remained calm overnight and this morning.

But Gary McMichael from the Ulster Democratic Party, which is close to the UDA, said Mr Mandelson was wrong to suggest that Johnny Adair was solely responsible for the trouble of recent days. He suggested that the only way to proceed was by political mediation between the warring factions.

Racketeering

Mr McMichael also revealed that the previous Northern Ireland Secretary, Mo Mowlam, had wanted to keep

Mo Mowlam - wanted to keep Adair in prison

Mr Adair in prison, prior to his his release six months ago. But according to Mr McMichael, the former UDA leader had won an appeal against that.

Throughout his interview with The World at One, Mr Mandelson insisted that the feuding amounted to "turf war", "gangsterism" and "racketeering" - though he accepted that mediation has a role to play.

Destabilising

And he rejected Conservative criticism of the prisoner release programme - in an unusually strong criticism of his Tory shadow, Andrew Mackay, he accused the opposition of deliberately trying to destabilise the peace process.

As for Johnny Adair, his chance of avoiding serving the rest of his time in prison lies with Northern Ireland's Sentence Review Commission.

In the first case of its kind, the Commission may have to make a judgement between Mr Mandelson's evidence and Mr Adair's claim that he has done nothing to cause his license to be revoked.

Read the history of the Loyalist feud - and find other Northern Ireland links