Belfast militant convicted in attack

In November 2006, two guards wrestled Michael Stone into submission outside the parliament building in Belfast. (Peter Morrison/Associated Press-file)

DUBLIN - A Belfast judge convicted a Protestant militant yesterday of trying to kill Catholic politicians during his bizarre - and internationally broadcast - attempt to attack the Northern Ireland Assembly two years ago.

Justice Donnell Deeny rejected as unbelievable Michael Stone's claim that he intended his November 2006 assault on Northern Ireland's power-sharing legislature to be an act of cutting-edge performance art.

Deeny noted that police seized an array of weapons from Stone, including an ax, three knives, a strangulation cord, a fake handgun, seven homemade grenades, and a small bomb. The judge said these were deadly weapons, not symbols.

"It is clear to me that some action constituting performance art cannot justify the use of violence, the threat of violence or putting others at risk of violence," Deeny said during his mammoth judgment, which took three hours to read.

Stone, 53, will be sentenced next month. He is in prison because Britain immediately put him behind bars after the botched attack to resume serving his multiple life sentences for his previous career of terrorism.

Deeny ruled that Stone was guilty of specifically trying to kill Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, leaders of the Irish Republican Army-linked Sinn Fein party.

ASSOCIATED PRESS