In a ruling that came as a shock to the campaign to have him released, Judge William Peterson, the presiding judge in the Pol Brennan case, denied political asylum for the Belfast man in a written judgment handed down on Wednesday.

The ruling means that, barring a further appeal, Brennan, who was arrested in the North in 1976 as a member of the IRA carrying explosives, now faces deportation to the Republic of Ireland.

Brennan told the court last month that he was hoping for political asylum and a green card on the basis of his 10-year marriage to his American wife Joanna Volz.

However Brennan failed to convince the authorities that he should be granted political asylum or given permanent residency.

Mike Cleveland, a spokesperson for the campaign to have Brennan released, said, "Right now Pol and Joanna are discussing his options. They're basically all in a state of limbo as they contemplate what they're going to do. The question is are they going to appeal at this point? Right now they're reviewing the written decision."

The judge found that Brennan's wife had "suffered extreme hardship" on the adjustment of status issue, but he denied the green card to her husband on the grounds that he had aided and abetted terrorism. It is understood that a further appeal would simply prolong Brennan's stay in custody, and the outcome would be uncertain.

The judge denied the withholding of removal and the convention against torture, two forms of political asylum relief, because of Brennan's previous convictions for passport fraud and a felony in possession of a weapon.

Said Cleveland, "Pol and his wife are feeling rather crushed now. We are all in shock. It had looked like the judge would take a more human response to this. That he didn't has blown everyone away.

"We're basically giving Pol's family their space and time to review their options. Pol had prepared himself for an unfavorable decision, but he was still rather floored when it was handed down."

Brennan was originally arrested by border guards in south Texas on January 27 for having a lapsed U.S. work permit, and he has been in U.S. custody ever since. Last month Brennan told a Texas court that he feared he would be attacked if he were sent back to Ireland.

Although all British extradition requests to Northern Ireland were dropped as part of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Brennan's immigration status was never fully resolved, leading to his arrest in January.

In recent years Brennan had remained in the U.S. under a succession of work permits, living in San Francisco where he worked as a carpenter.