Shoukri to be set free again
LEADING loyalist Andre Shoukri could be released from prison on parole within weeks as he comes to the end of a nine-year jail term for a catalogue of terrorism-related offences.
The former north Belfast UDA leader was jailed in 2007 for a total of 18 charges, including blackmail, intimidation and acquiring criminal property.
With time served in remand he is due for release from Maghaberry prison early next year.
However, from today, August 1, he is eligible to apply for resettlement home leave, aimed at easing his transition back into the community.
The deposed terror boss is not expected to return to his former north Belfast stomping ground having long since fallen foul of UDA associates.
Instead Shoukri has hinted to friends he may settle in Larne, where close ally Alan McClean, who was also expelled from the UDA, currently lives.
Any new address will have to be cleared by the PSNI due to the high-risk nature attached to the senior paramilitary figure’s release.
If approved for pre-release parole Shoukri will be released from the top-security prison later this month, first on accompanied day release and later weekend leave.
By Christmas he could spend as much as three days in every 10 living in the community in preparation for his permanent release.
In November last year Shoukri’s younger brother Ihab died of a suspected drug overdose within months of his release from Maghaberry for a UDA membership charge.
He had been living with his girlfriend in the loyalist Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey prior to his death.
An unlikely loyalist, the son of an Egyptian father and Irish mother, Shoukri rose through the ranks to the top of the UDA before his very high-profile fall from grace.
The 32-year-old paramilitary boss has already spent a considerable amount of his adult life behind bars.
In June 1996 he was acquitted of the manslaughter of Irish international tennis player Gareth Parker, critically injured after being hit by a car seconds after being attacked by Shoukri.
The loyalist was convicted of malicious wounding and served eight months in jail.
Within months of his release he was involved in an attempt to extort thousands of pounds from north Belfast restaurant owner Mel Lundy.
Following the trial the Lundy family were forced to flee Northern Ireland after being warned of a UDA plot to kill them.
Upon his release in 2002 Shoukri had already caught the attention of paramilitary leader Johnny Adair who ousted Jim Simpson as the UDA’s north Belfast so-called brigadier and installed Andre in his place.
It was a move that was to backfire on Adair who later that year attempted to overthrow the UDA’s inner council only for Shoukri to give his backing to the mainstream organisation.
A compulsive gambler, Shoukri exploited his newfound position of power to fund an addiction that was to see him fritter away hundreds of thousands of pounds from the coffers of the UDA.
As money to fund the lavish gangster lifestyle started to run dry members of the north Belfast UDA were ordered to carry out a series of increasingly risky criminal money-making enterprises.
Between 2005 and 2006 more than 25 north Belfast UDA members were put behind bars on extortion and kidnapping charges.
In May 2006 the UDA finally expelled Andre and brother Ihab along with close associate Alan McClean, leading to a split between the mainstream organisation and the breakaway south-east Antrim faction.
In June of this year a home in Ballysillan, purchased illegally by Shoukri, was seized as part of the criminal recovery process.
The court was told that with the downturn in the property market the house was worth only a fraction of its original £147,000 valuation.
The loyalist was ordered to pay the nominal fee of just £1 to authorities after the court was told that the ousted UDA boss had no “realisable assets” to speak of.
