Adams seriously suggests putting jurors into a protection programme…

In the Times of London Irish edition he’s quoted thusly… “States throughout the world protect and value the basic right to a jury trial,” he said. “Juries must of course be protected in carrying out their work and this can be achieved in a number of ways including having an anonymous jury, screening the jury from public view, protecting the jury during the trial, or locating the jury in a different place from where the trial is being held with …

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Adams seriously suggests that Jurors could be put into a protection programme…

Interesting outworking of the Slab Murphy controversy. Sinn Fein’s position has been to suggest getting rid of the Republic’s Special Criminal Court (the juryless court which was responsible for convicting Murphy in a civil case). The new techniques which Mary Lou McDonald hinted at over the weekend appear to be putting jurors on what amounts to a witness protection programme… “States throughout the world protect and value the basic right to a jury trial,” he said. “Juries must of course be protected …

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Question for Gerry Adams: Is Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy still “a good republican”?

As the BBC reports, 66-year-old Thomas Murphy has been found guilty of nine charges of tax evasion at Ireland’s non-jury Special Criminal Court. When, in March 2006, there was a series of co-ordinated raids on properties in the UK and Ireland connected to Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy – who had been named previously as both the UK’s richest smuggler and a former Provisional IRA Chief of Staff – the Sinn Féin president, now Louth TD, Gerry Adams declared, “Tom Murphy is not a …

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Laois counterfeiting trial collapses

The Dublin Special Criminal Court trial of four men arrested at the scene of an underground bunker in County Laois in 2010, after what Europol described as “a major investigation into one of the most sophisticated money counterfeiting set-ups uncovered in Europe to date”, has collapsed after the prosecution counsel entered a nolle prosequi – a decision to no longer prosecute the case.  From the BBC report At the Special Criminal Court, the prosecution counsel entered a nolle prosequi – a decision …

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Murphy challenges Special Criminal Court venue for case

The latest stage in the long-running saga of the State versus Thomas Murphy got under way in Dublin’s High Court today.  Thomas Murphy faces trial in the Special Criminal Court on nine charges of failing to make tax returns between 1996 and 2004.  In October 2008, the “culmination of intensive investigations by the Irish Criminal Assets Bureau and the UK’s Serious and Organised Crime Agency” saw more than €625,000 in cash and cheques confiscated in Ireland as the proceeds of crime, while …

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The State versus Thomas Murphy – redux

Possibly relevant to Brian’s earlier post… and Mitchell Reiss’ admission…  An iol report provides an update on the long-running saga of the State versus Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy. First a re-cap from a previous post. In October 2008, the “culmination of intensive investigations by the Criminal Assets Bureau and the UK’s Serious and Organised Crime Agency” saw more than €625,000 in cash and cheques confiscated in Ireland as the proceeds of crime, while £445,000 (573,000 euro) and nine properties in the north-west …

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