Marian Price released from custody after two years on remand

LEADING dissident republican Marian Price McGlinchey has been released after more than two years on remand in prison.

The convicted IRA bomber has been in custody since May 2011.

Her freedom licence was revoked by then Northern Ireland Secretary of State Owen Paterson.

She was moved from Hydebank Prison to a Belfast hospital on medical advice last June.

Price was convicted of the Old Bailey bomb in 1973 along with her sister Dolours and Gerry Kelly.

One man died and more than 200 people were injured in the bombing.

Mr Paterson said he made the decision to send her back to prison in May 2011 because the threat she posed had “significantly increased”.

The decision to release her on Thursday was taken by the Parole Commissioners.

She is currently facing two sets of charges.

She is accused of providing a mobile telephone for a terrorist purpose on 8 March 2009, shortly before two soldiers were shot dead at Massereene barracks in Antrim.

And that she aided and abetted a meeting in support of an illegal organisation on 25 April last year.

She was granted bail on those charges at the time but she was taken back to jail because Mr Paterson revoked her licence.

Her recent imprisonment was controversial and many campaigned for her release.