BY MARY LOU MONTAUK

SAN FRANCISCO - A ruling by a federal judge here July 3 has paved the way for Irish activist Jimmy Smyth to be extradited back to Northern Ireland.

Smyth, 42, was convicted in 1978 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for the attempted murder of an off-duty prison official. In 1983 he and 37 other political prisoners took part in the biggest jailbreak in the history of the United Kingdom, escaping from the infamous H-Block wing of Maze prison near Belfast.

Smyth subsequently settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he worked as a house painter. He was arrested by the FBI in 1992 and threatened with extradition under the terms of a 1986 treaty between Washington and London.

H-Block escapees Kevin Barry Artt, Terry Kirby, and Pol Brennan were also arrested in San Francisco in 1992. They have all been known since as the H-Block 4.

In 1994, after a three-month hearing, U.S. district judge Barbara Caulfield denied London's request to extradite Smyth and he was released on $1.5 million bail. The U.S. government, acting for the British government, appealed Caulfield's ruling, which was subsequently overturned by the 9th Circuit Court. In June the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Smyth's appeal for asylum and the Justice Department moved rapidly to have his bail revoked.

Some 120 of Smyth's backers packed a courtroom here for the Irish activist's extradition hearing. Karen Snell, Smyth's attorney, filed a petition for a restraining order to halt the extradition proceedings. Judge Charles Legge ruled against the petition and announced the dismissal of a lawsuit Snell filed against Secretary of State Warren Christopher to prevent the extradition on humanitarian grounds. Smyth was ordered to turn himself in later in the day. The papers for his extradition have been forwarded to the Clinton administration.

Supporters of Smyth have been sending faxes and E-mail messages to the White House and the State Department demanding his extradition be halted and he be granted asylum in the United States.

Trials for H-block defendants Artt, Brennan, and Kirby, are scheduled here in November. In the meantime, the three remain under house arrest.

John Fogarty, regional vice present for human rights of the Irish American Unity Conference said in an interview, "We must broaden our appeal for support, going to unions and other organizations to appeal for support for Jimmy and the three other H-Block defendants."

The Irish American Unity Coalition organized picket lines July 15 and 16 at the federal courthouse here to demand the Clinton administration halt Smyth's extradition.  
 
 
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