Loyalist Andre Shoukri due for release
Former UDA ‘brigadier’ Andre Shoukri has been warned that police “will be sitting on top of him” when he is freed from jail.
The now imminent release of the former paramilitary leader is causing considerable tension within the loyalist community.
And it has already emerged that a close associate of Shoukri has been forced to leave his home.
“All the good work we’ve done in the past few years could be out the window in 10 minutes,” one senior figure warned, pointing to an almost inevitable confrontation with one of the most high-profile loyalist leaders.
Shoukri, who has been serving a jail sentence for extortion and blackmail, once sat on the UDA ‘inner council’ — its ‘brigadier’ leadership — but was removed in one of the many loyalist feuds.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, a senior loyalist dismissed the suggestion that the police will sit on him.
“They will watch him for a while, take a note of his movements, but they haven’t got the resources,” he said.
“He’s not going to go home and watch Coronation Street. He’s going to be a nuisance,” the source added.
It is believed Shoukri intends to live on the outskirts of north Belfast, the area of the city he once ruled as a paramilitary leader.
Several years ago he and his brother Ihab, who died in 2008, were both expelled from the UDA.
A new leadership was installed with the terrorist organisation saying: “It is our duty as defenders of the Protestant people whom we serve to create safer communities that are drug and crime free and where our people can live without fear of oppression.”
But the UDA is not crime free. In its latest report, the Independent Monitoring Commission links parts of the loyalist group to a range of serious crimes including drug dealing, intimidation and extortion. In some cases, this is said to involve senior figures.
Outside the loyalist camp, others will be watching the Shoukri situation very closely.
“The guy has got to come out, he doesn’t want any bother,” one source commented.
He added: “He says all the right things, but can’t do them.”
Both the mainstream UDA and the Shoukri faction were part of the recent decommissioning process, putting weapons beyond use. But some still see Shoukri as a threat to the developing peace.
