Brendan Hughes BBC Spotlight: Former IRA leader says terror group's practise of disappearing people was 'a war crime' that 'should never have happened'

Co Tyrone man Brendan Hughes believes the IRA intended to make him one of the Disappeared – killing him and burying him in a secret grave.

In a two part series the former IRA leader told BBC Spotlight that the IRA campaign which claimed almost 1,800 lives was a "total waste" of life.

Hughes said the IRA passed a death sentence on him in 1975 after he carried out an armed robbery for personal gain.

"Suddenly you realise the position that other people were in, the position that you had been putting people in all these years, that there was a threat over their very existence.

"I didn't want to be disappeared. I never agreed with that.

"The disappearing of people is a war crime. It should never have happened."

Hughes was involved in several robberies on behalf of the IRA in the early 1970s

He tried to steal more money to buy his way out of the death sentence but was captured by Gardaí and jailed for 20 years.

He detailed his planning of a helicopter hijacking which freed three republicans from Mountjoy Prison in 1973.

"I'm telling my story to tell people who I am, what I am and where I am today, and where I am today, I would not do any of those things," he said.

"I'm not prepared to lift one finger in a violent way ever again. Never will.

"I see war as the most futile and destructive thing that man ever created."

Hughes, who is now in his late 70s, now reflects on those impacted by his actions.

"I didn't give a great deal of thought to the bank man [manager] that I put a gun to his head," he said. "I was a guy out there in pursuit of a cause. I must have mentally terrified a lot of people."

He added: "But now I realize that doing my job wasn't just doing my job, and had long term implications for ordinary, innocent and decent people."

The former IRA leader said he wants to engage with a truth commission.

"It wasn't worth leaving one family without a father or a brother or a sister," he said of the IRA campaign.

"It was a total waste, absolute total waste of energy, of life, of resources," he said.

His interview comes amid government efforts to repeal the controversial Legacy Act, Introduced by the previous Conservative government, which offered a conditional amnesty to perpetrators.

The High Court in Belfast later ruled parts of the legislation would breach the European Convention on Human Rights.

Hughes said he would engage with a truth commission - if there were no repercussions.

"I'm prepared to sit down with anyone, anytime, anywhere and talk about this – in the right forum.

"If the victims say that's the forum and there's no repercussions for anyone for doing this, that's where I want to be.

"The first requisition for reconciliation is truth," he said.

• BBC NI Spotlight – Those Who Want Me Dead, parts 1 & 2 are now available to see in BBC Iplayer.