A MAZE escaper from Northern Ireland fighting extradition from the US has been released on million bail.
After two years in a Californian jail, Terence Kirby, one of 38 prisoners who escaped in 1983 from the Maze prison, put up the £1 million bail, set by a judge, on Wednesday.
It included $500,000 in combined property and bail guarantor signatures by five relatives of his American wife, Ms Colleen Dolan.
Kirby, Kevin Barry Artt and Paul Brennan were arrested in California between 1992 and 1994. Kirby and Artt had been convicted of murder while Brennan was convicted of possessing explosives.
"As with the other gentlemen, we will continue our fighting extradition back to Northern Ireland on the grounds that, if returned, they would be persecuted on the grounds of their religion, Catholicism, and their political beliefs, being Irish nationalists", his lawyer said.