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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Reuters) - A former stockbroker who bought weapons in a gun-running scheme operated by the Irish Republican Army was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Monday despite her contention she was threatened with death by an IRA execution squad.
U.S. District Judge Wilkie Ferguson also fined Siobhan Browne, 35, more than $25,000 for her part in a three-month weapons-buying spree with her boyfriend, Anthony Smyth, that began in March 1999 and was funded by the IRA guerrilla group.
Dressed in beige prison scrubs, Browne appeared pale and thin after more than 12 months in a federal detention center in Miami.
She lost composure only once during the hearing, crying softly as she described the alleged IRA death squad that threatened to kill her last May.
Browne, Smyth, 43, and co-defendants Martin Mullan, 30, and Conor Claxton, 27, were arrested in an FBI raid in July 1999. Browne accepted a government plea bargain in March, pleading guilty to one of 33 charges against her.
After a six-week trial that ended in June, Smyth, Mullan and Claxton were convicted of illegally buying and shipping weapons and ammunition to Northern Ireland. Their sentencing is expected in September, Claxton's attorney Fred Haddad said.
They were found innocent of more serious charges of conspiring to aid terrorists and to murder or maim people in Northern Ireland, which could have brought life sentences.
During the trial, Claxton admitted he was a member of the Provisional IRA and had masterminded the gun-smuggling plot. IRA higher-ups approved the operation, hoping to arm Catholics in case the peace process broke down, he said.
"Siobhan Browne met the wrong man at the wrong Irish pub and used bad judgement," her lawyer Albert Levin said. "She's not a member of the IRA, has never been in Northern Ireland and doesn't deserve any more time in jail."
Browne admitted she bought numerous guns at Smyth's request and in his company, saying she initially believed the transactions were legal. Browne, a resident of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, holds dual citizenship in the United States and Republic of Ireland.
Smyth could not purchase weapons himself, since he was not a legal U.S. resident at the time.
She tried to convince Smyth to "disconnect" from Claxton once she realized the guns were part of an IRA operation, she said. On May 23, 1999, Claxton made the alleged death threat to Smyth in a van that also held three unidentified IRA "volunteers", she said.
Smyth relayed the threat to her and the couple's romantic relationship began to unravel.
"(Claxton) said he would break both my arms, my legs and whack me because I was a security leak," Browne said.
Smyth told her that approval for her execution came directly from the IRA, which feared Browne would reveal knowledge of the gun-smuggling plot.
Claxton's attorney dismissed the death threat allegations. "Beyond ludicrous -- the biggest bunch of baloney I ever heard," said Haddad, who was reached at his home.
The judge ruled that any coercion or threats occurred after Browne's gun purchases and characterized her role in the drama as "not minor."
With time already served, Browne could be released as early as April 2001.
That guy Martin Mullan comes from my town!!!
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