The alleged offence of distributing forged US dollars was linked to the political hostility between North Korea and the US, the High Court was told yesterday.
Former IRA chief of staff Seán Garland (77), Beldonstown, Brownstown, Navan, Co Meath, is opposing his extradition to the US to face charges of distributing fake US dollars.
His counsel, Richard Humphreys SC, told Mr Justice John Edwards that to qualify for the political exception in extradition, the alleged offence needed only to be “connected” to a political offence.
The attempt by North Korea to undermine the currency of the US was clearly a political offence, as there was a near state of war between the two states since the 1940s. Mr Humphreys cited the case of Bourke vs Attorney General, in which the Supreme Court here had refused to extradite an Irishman who had assisted in the escape of an English spy, George Blake, from prison in England who then fled to Russia.
Seán Bourke was an “ordinary decent criminal” who sympathised with Blake and assisted him. In the opinion of the then chief justice, his offence fell short of a political offence, but it was connected to a political offence, that of Blake’s for spying. The case continues today.