Lawyers for convicted drug dealer John Gilligan today resumed their case to have his 28-year jail sentence overturned in the Court of Criminal Appeal today.
Gilligan was acquitted in March 2001 of the murder of Veronica Guerin and a number of firearms charges, but jailed for 28 years for importing over 19,000 kilos of cannabis resin valued at millions of euro.
Continuing his arguments from yesterday, Mr Cian Ferriter, JC for Gilligan, spent the morning outlining the defence team's argument that they had been effectively "shut out" in the original trial in the Special Criminal Court.
He said the court's claim that it had no jurisdiction to hear arguments on what was described as the "slightly suspicious" circumstances in which Gilligan ended up before the Special Criminal Court, was without basis and had in effect "misdirected itself" on the issue.
Mr Ferriter told the three sitting judges that there was "no great mystery" over what the defence had wanted to do at the time, and would have simply involved hearing evidence from the gardai responsible for liaising with the British authorities over Gilligan's detention there and subsequent extradition.
Yesterday, Gilligan's lawyers claimed their client was wrongly convicted on the basis of uncorroborated and inadmissible evidence from paid Garda informers.
They claimed the evidence against Gilligan had been from "serial self-serving liars", "compromised witnesses" and "desperate men in desperate straits".
These witnesses were described as people who would not have the backbone to resist any perceived offer of "cash for testimony".
The appeal continues this afternoon before Mr Justice McCracken, presiding, Mr Justice Quirke and Mr Justice Peart.