Police in Northern Ireland on Wednesday charged a 36-year-old man in connection with the murder of a prison officer who was shot dead near Belfast as he drove along a motorway to work.
The suspect, who was arrested in County Tyrone, was to appear at Lisburn Magistrates Court on Thursday to face terror charges.
Prison officer David Black, 52, was on his way to work at Maghaberry jail last month when a car with Dublin registration plates pulled up alongside his on Northern Ireland’s main M1 motorway and opened fire.
His car veered into a deep ditch, and he died at the scene.
Police said it had the hallmarks of an attack by dissident republicans opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process.
Republicans from the minority Catholic community want Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and join the Republic of Ireland to the south.
Mainstream republican groups such as the IRA have laid down their arms and joined the peace process, but dissident offshoots remain violently opposed to the power-sharing government in Belfast, formed of Catholic and Protestant parties.
The 1998 peace accords which ushered in the devolved Belfast assembly largely ended the Troubles, the 30 years of sectarian bloodshed, but there have been recent bouts of disorder sparked by Belfast city council’s decision not to fly the British flag all year around.
Man charged over murder of N. Ireland prison officer
