Hutch and Dowdall fail to stop their murder trials from proceeding

Gerry “The Monk” Hutch and ex-Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall have lost their High Court actions aimed at preventing them from being tried before the Special Criminal Court on charges of murder arising out of the Regency Hotel attack.

In his judgement on Friday, Mr Justice Anthony Barr said he was satisfied to dismiss the men’s actions.

The judge said that having considered all the various arguments raised by the parties he had reached the conclusion that all of the reliefs sought by the two accused “must be refused.”

The judge added that there was no basis in law to prevent the Director of Public Prosecutions from certifying that their trials on the charge of murder should be tried before the non-jury Special Criminal Court (SCC).

Mr Hutch (58), who was extradited from Spain, and former Dublin City councillor Jonathan Dowdall (44), of Navan Road, Dublin, are both charged with the murder of David Byne (33) at the Regency Hotel on February 5th,2016.

In their judicial review proceedings, the two accused sought declarations from the High Court that their trials before the SCC would be unlawful and in breach of their fundamental rights because it is operating as a permanent court when it was only set up on a temporary basis nearly 50 years ago.

Their actions were against the Minister for Justice, Dáil Éireann, Ireland and the Attorney General, while Seanad Éireann is also a respondent in the Hutch case.

They also sought various declarations including that a trial before the SCC is unlawful, outside the powers of the 1939 Offences Against the State Act and violates their constitutional and European Convention rights.

They further claimed the failure by the State to enact anything other than temporary measures in respect of procedures for the trial of persons before the SCC also breaches their rights.

Organised crime

They claimed that they should not be tried under what amounts to temporary legislation introduced in 1972 during the Troubles in response to an emergency situation, at the time but has since been extended to deal with serious organised crime.

The respondents denied their claims and say, among other things, there is a failure by the men to adequately, or at all, to particularise the legal basis for the reliefs they seek.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Barr said that the case centred around a proper interpretation of a certain section of the 1939 Offences Against the State Act.

Having considered all the various parties’ submissions the court had reached the conclusion that it must refuse all the forms of relief sought by the applicants.

The court did not accept the applicants’ argument that the legislation challenged was temporary nor had any temporal limit.

There was “no sunset clause” in the Act, whereby it could only exist beyond a given date after its inception, on a resolution of either the Government or the Dáil, the judge added.

The judge added that the DPP was entitled to certify that certain offences can be tried before the SCC once the DPP held the requisite opinion that the ordinary courts are inadequate to secure the effective administration of justice.

There was he added no basis in law preventing the DPP from seeking to have the applicants’ trials go before the SCC, he added.

The judge also rejected the applicants’ claims that that there was a lack of any effective review of the relevant provisions under the 1939 Act.

The judge noted it had been argued that in 1972 the SCC was set up to primarily deal with offences connected to subversive organisations.

The applicants argued that as the SCC currently deals with gangland or organised crimes, the regulations governing that court introduced 50 years ago should have been replaced with updated onses.

Political question

The judge said that the DPP is entitled to have certain matters go before the SCC for trial, even if they do not have any subversive connections.

The court was satisfied that the decisions made by the Government in 1972, and by successive governments regarding the SCC was “a political question”, and not something justiciable before the courts.

There were some circumstances where a court can review the actions by the executive, Mr Justice Barr said.

However, he was satisfied that “noting had been established” in these actions which would “warrant the court trespassing into “the sphere that is essentially the business of the executive.”

The judge added that there was no basis upon which to make any declarations against the Dáil. It had previously been agreed that Mr Hutch had no case to make against Seanad Éireann, he noted.