‘Tartan Terrorist’ won’t go to States

Paisley-born former soldier is too ill to travel to face‘bomb’charges

A former soldier from Paisley will not be extradited to the USA over bomb threats because he is too frail.

Self- styled ‘ Tartan Terrorist’ Adam Busby, 69, who was born in Seedhill and served with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, faced charges of threatening to blow up the University of Pittsburgh.

Wheelchair- bound Busby, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and claims to have founded the Scottish National Liberation Army, is alleged to have emailed 17 bomb threats to the American varsity.

However legal bosses have ruled he is unfit for trial, therefore his extradition to the USA will not go ahead.

Sheriff Frank Crowe told a hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court that Busby, referred to in court documents as ‘SN’, should not be extradited.

He said: “The c i rcumstances are exceptional and the proposed proceedings relate to an individual who has been well known to the criminal authorities in this jurisdiction for many years.

“SN suffers from a degenerative condition for which there is no cure. He was diagnosed with the condition in 2009, was assessed as being unfit for court proceedings by various medical practitioners in 2015 since when there has been a further deterioration in SN’s condition and powers of communication.

“To have granted the warrant would simply have been to authorise a charade, well knowing in light of the unchallenged reports produced to me that his condition is such that it would be unjust and oppressive to extradite him in view of his physical and mental condition.

“Accordingly I have exercised my discretion not to issue a warrant for the arrest of SN. It is quite clear that seeking to issue a warrant in the present circumstances, given SN’s poor and precarious health, would place those seeking to enforce such a warrant in an invidious, impractical and frankly impossible position.”

Busby also made bomb threats against the Erskine Bridge and string of Scottish targets, including water supplies and the Forth Road Bridge.

He was due to face terror charges in 2015 at the High Court in Glasgow for making bomb threats, but was ruled unfit to stand trial.

Busby fled Scotland for Ireland in 1980 after leading a string of minor terror attacks in Scotland against military sites, oil companies and highprofile public figures using home-made letter bombs.

Targets included Lady Thatcher, Douglas Hurd, and former Scottish first minister Jack McConnell.