‘Tartan Terrorist’ too ill to stand trial in US

The founder of the Scottish National Liberation Army, dubbed the “Tartan Terrorist”, will not be extradited to the US to face bomb threat charges because of his failing health, a court ruled yesterday.

US prosecutors wanted Adam Busby to face trial over claims he threatened to blow up the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.

Busby, of Paisley, Renfrewshire, had been indicted on charges of emailing 40 bomb threats to buildings in Pittsburgh in 2012, including the university and the city’s federal court house. The threats resulted in more than 100 evacuations at the university and cost more than £183,000 in extra security checks.

However, the 71-year-old, who has from multiple sclerosis and now lives in a care home where he requires full nursing care, has been deemed unfit to stand trial.

Following an extradition hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Sheriff Frank Crowe ruled that Busby, referred to in court documents as “SN”, should not be extradited.

Sheriff Crowe said: “The circumstances 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. To have granted the warrant would simply have been to authorise a charade. 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.

In 1980, he fled from Scotland to Ireland after orchestrating a series of minor terrorist attacks in Scotland against military sites, oil companies and high-profile public figures using primitive letter bombs.

He used his base in Dublin to organise further hoaxes involving alleged anthrax weapons, and real attacks including incendiary devices.