The High Court has made an order for the extradition to Spain of a Co Louth man on a charge of the homicide of his wife in a Spanish resort five years ago.
The order is the first made in Ireland under the European Arrest Warrant Act, 2003, which came into effect in January 2004.
Michael McArdle has 15 days to appeal the order, made yesterday by the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, after the judge rejected all the grounds of his challenge to his proposed surrender.
Mr McArdle was remanded in custody to Clover Hill prison.
The hearing of the challenge by Mr McArdle (36), of Brookfield, Heynestown, Dundalk, concluded on April 24th, and he was remanded on continuing bail until judgment was delivered yesterday.
The surrender of Mr McArdle was sought earlier this year in connection with the death of his wife, Kelly Anne, following a fall from a hotel balcony in Marbella on February 12th, 2000.
Mr McArdle challenged his proposed surrender on grounds of abuse of court process, prejudice as a result of delay in instituting proceedings against him and breach of his rights under the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Finnegan said he was satisfied that the correct Spanish court had issued the arrest warrant in the case.
He rejected Mr McArdle's claim that a decision had previously been taken not to proceed with a criminal investigation into the death and found that previous procedures were akin to an inquest and were not criminal in nature.
The judge noted that Mr McArdle had contended that he was arrested on foot of a provisional arrest warrant under the Extradition Act, 1965, in October 2001 but was later released when the extradition requested was withdrawn.
The judge said he was satisfied this was because Ireland at that time would not extradite one of its own citizens to Spain.
Such an extradition had only become possible with the coming into effect of the European Arrest Warrant Act on January 1st, 2004.
In those circumstances there was no abuse of process in seeking for the second time to extradite Mr McArdle.
Dealing with arguments concerning delay, the judge said extradition of Mr McArdle was not possible prior to the European Arrest Warrant Act coming into effect in January 2004.
The warrant in this case was issued in August 2004. In those circumstances, he was satisfied there was no exceptional delay.