A man cleared of murdering two soldiers In Northern Ireland has claimed his DNA was planted in the getaway car.
Colin Duffy, 44, said the charges against him were "spurious" but refused to condemn dissident republicans.
Co-accused Brian Shivers was yesterday convicted of murdering the two sappers outside Massereene army barracks in March 2009.
Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, and Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, were ambushed by gunmen from the dissident republican Real IRA at the gates of Massereene barracks in Antrim on 7 March 2009.
Duffy's DNA was found on a latex glove tip inside the car and on a seat buckle but he said the prosecution had failed to link the defendant to the murder plot.
In a press conference Duffy said: "I am firmly of the view that my DNA arose there because it was planted. I was never in that car.
"I state quite categorically here that I had no involvement in what happened at Massereene, no involvement whatsoever, and that has been vindicated in court because there was no credible evidence to suggest otherwise."
He said that if being a dissident meant opposing Sinn Fein's peace strategy then he was happy to classify himself as such.
He added that he had no questions to answer.
"I did not need to answer to the spurious evidence or so-called evidence that they were adducing at the trial," he said.
"The decision not to give evidence was a decision that we took on the basis of my view legally of how the case was going."
Judge Anthony Hart told the court that he was satisfied that Duffy's DNA was found on a latex glove tip inside the car and on a seat buckle but he said the prosecution had failed to link the defendant to the murder plot.
He said: "I consider that there is insufficient evidence to satisfy me beyond reasonable doubt that whatever Duffy may have done when he wore the latex glove, or touched the seatbelt buckle, meant that he was preparing the car in some way for this murderous attack. And I therefore find him not guilty."
The non-jury trial lasted six weeks. It ended just before Christmas and Justice Hart took four weeks to consider his verdicts.
The soldiers from the 38 Engineer Regiment were about to begin a tour of duty in Afghanistan when they were gunned down in an attack by republican extremists opposed to the Good Friday peace deal of 1998.
The victims, who were wearing their desert fatigues and were within hours of leaving the base, were collecting pizzas at the front gate when they came under fire.
Four other people, including two pizza delivery drivers, were injured in the gun attack.
A green Vauxhall Cavalier car thought to have been used by the gang was found abandoned in a rural location eight miles away.
The gunmen set light to the car, but it did not burn out. DNA evidence recovered from it formed the basis for the trial of the two accused.
It was the third time in the last two decades that Duffy, from Lurgan, Co Armagh, has walked free after being charged with murdering security-force members.