Joseph Doherty, returned early this morning to the Belfast prison that he and seven other I.R.A. guerrillas escaped from 11 years ago, could have his 30-year sentence reduced by the eight and three-quarter years he spent in United States jails fighting extradition and deportation, British officials said today.

The bus was bound from Armagh to two Belfast prisons, where the men are confined.

Mr. Doherty escaped from a Belfast prison in 1981 as he was being tried in the 1980 killing of a British Army captain in an ambush in Northern Ireland.

A9 DOHERTY IMPRISONED IN BELFAST Joseph Doherty, the I.R.A. guerrilla deported from the United States, returned to the Belfast prison he escaped from 11 years ago.

In 1981 Mr. Doherty escaped from a Belfast prison two days before he was convicted of killing a British Army captain in an ambush of a British convoy in Belfast.

In 1981, after a 66-day hunger strike, Bobby Sands died in a Belfast prison.

During the First World War he was a conscientious objector to military service and served three prison sentences, in Preston, Wormwood Scrubs and Belfast prisons.

Written by Ronan Bennett and directed by Robert Dornhelm ("Requiem for Dominic"), the movie opens with Dowd, played by Mr. Rea, and his fellow I.R.A. inmate Richard (Brendon Gleeson) joining an escape from a Belfast prison.

Mr. Fusco, who served 10 years in Irish prisons for a 1981 escape from a Belfast prison, had been at large since Ireland's Supreme Court ruled two years ago that he could be sent to Ulster.