A former British soldier and suspected member of the Provisional IRA has gone on trial in Germany charged with attempted murder for allegedly bombing a British army base in 1996.
Mr Michael Robert Dickson, a 38-year-old Irishman, is accused of launching a mortar bomb attack on the "Quebec Barracks" used by the British army on the Rhine in Osnabrück on June 28th, 1996, with the intention of killing an unspecified number of British soldiers.
Germany's chief federal prosecutor, Mr Kay Nehm, said Mr Dickson was a member of a Provisional IRA "active service unit" and planned the attack with at least four others.
Mr Dickson is accused of building the three home-made mortar bombs that were launched from a parked Ford Transit van outside the base. He has refused to enter a plea. However, to date he has insisted he is innocent of all charges.
Only one of the three bombs detonated, missing a petrol store and causing approximately €95,000 worth of damage. There were no injures among the 150 relatives of British soldiers living in the barracks as none were present at the time of the blast. The attack was the first IRA attack on the European mainland in six years.
Mr Dickson was arrested at Ruzyne International Airport in Prague on December 6th last year after arriving on a flight from Dublin. He was identified by an Interpol database after immigration officials checked his passport.
He was arrested by Czech alien and border police on foot of an international arrest warrant issued by the German federal police, the BKA (Bundeskriminalamt). After four months in Prague's Pankrac prison under maximum security conditions he was extradited to Germany last April where he was immediately put in prison awaiting trial.
In a letter to the Prague Post newspaper he denied he had any connections to any terrorist organisation. "I am not a member or have been a member of the IRA ," he wrote before his Prague extradition hearing.
"If I am extradited, I will be the only person in jail under the Good Friday agreement," said Mr Dickson during that trial, referring to the amnesty on IRA members who committed acts of terrorism prior to 1998 agreement.
German authorities believe Mr Dickson was a member of an IRA "active service unit" of up to seven people who used false identities and forged documents to avoid detection.
Mr Dickson was born in Scotland but holds Irish citizenship and has a girlfriend and child in Dundalk. He served six years in the British army at the Osnabrück base bombed in the 1996 attack.
He made no statement during the first day of proceedings yesterday.
He faces charges of attempted murder and of causing an explosion and could face life imprisonment if found guilty.
The case is being heard by three judges of the provincial high court of Celle, near Hanover, and a verdict is expected in January.
More than 20 witnesses are expected to give evidence over the 11 days of hearings. The trial continues today.
