The Five Demands

I funerali del leader lealista (UDA) di  nord di Belfast Ihab Shoukri, sono stati sconvolti da un duplice allarme bomba.
Gli Army Technical Officers (ATO) sono stati chiamati a esaminare un oggetto sospetto, trovato all’esterno della cass dove la vittima viveva con la sua ragazza a Rathcoole, poche ore prima del rito funebre.
Gli artificeri sono stati quindi incaricati di esaminare un secondo dispositivo sospetto, ritrovato vicino alla Holy Trinity Parish Church, dove avrebbe dovuto avere luogo la cerimonia.
Alla cerimonia avrebbe dovuto partecipare anche Andre Shoukri, fratello della vittima, che ha ottenuto una licenza straordinaria di 7 ore per lasciare il carcere di Maghaberry (dove sta scontando una pena di 9 anni, n.d.r.) sotto la custodia di un ministro ecclesiastico.
Dagli esami autoptici sembra che la morte di Ihab Shoukri sia imputabile ad una crisi epilettica e non ad un’overdose, come era stato inizialmente ipotizzato dalla polizia.

Shoukri funeral disrupted by bomb hoaxes
THE funeral of leading north Belfast loyalist Ihab Shoukri has been disrupted by two bomb hoaxes.
Army Technical Officers (ATO) were called in to examine a suspicious object found outside Shoukri’s girlfriend’s home in the Rathcoole estate just hours before the funeral was due to take place on Thursday morning.
A police spokesman confirmed that the device was “a deliberate hoax.”
ATO were then tasked to examine a second suspicious object discovered near Holy Trinity Parish Church, Ballysillan Road where Shoukri’s funeral service was due to take place at midday.
The 34-year-old died at a house in Grainon Way, Rathcoole on Saturday night.
Shoukri had been living in the estate with his girlfriend Emma Evans, and it is believed the couple were planning to marry next month.
At the time of going to print it was still unclear as to what had caused Shoukri’s death, with claims that it may have been due to a drugs overdose, or possibly an epileptic fit.
A spokesman for the Coroner’s office said that the cause of death was “undetermined pending laboratory investigations.”
Shoukri, who is originally from the Westland estate in Belfast, was jailed for 15 months in June after admitting being a member of the UDA.
He was released just a few weeks later because of the amount of time he had spent in prison while awaiting trial.
He had been arrested in March 2006 along with a number of other men at a bar on York Street where a UDA “show of strength” was being planned.
Sons of an Egyptian father who married a local woman, Ihab Shoukri and his brother Andre were expelled from the mainstream UDA two years ago after joining up with a breakaway faction in South East Antrim.
One loyalist source in Rathcoole told the Times that Ihab had been “living a quiet life in the estate” since his brother Andre was jailed last November for nine years on charges of blackmail and intimidation. The source, who didn’t want to be identified, said the funeral would be “a low key event with no paramilitary trappings.”
Shoukri was due to be buried in Carnmoney Ardeen Cemetery.