John Downey: Double murder accused extradited to NI

Image caption, John Downey was arrested on suspicion of the murder of two soldiers in 1972

A man wanted in Northern Ireland over the murder of two soldiers has been extradited from the Republic of Ireland.

Irish police arrested John Downey, 67, before extraditing him.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said it had arrested a 67-year-old "on suspicion of the murder of two UDR soldiers in 1972 and on suspicion of aiding and abetting an explosion".

Mr Downey is due to appear at Omagh Magistrates Court on Saturday morning.

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Soldiers Alfred Johnston, a father of four, and James Eames, a father of three, were killed in a bomb attack in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, in August 1972.

Mr Downey was detained in the Republic of Ireland in October last year under a European arrest warrant.

He was previously accused of the murders of four soldiers in the 1982 IRA Hyde Park bombing.

Mr Downey was to stand trial for those murders in 2014 but the trial collapsed.