The High Court has reserved judgment on an attempt by a Portuguese man, who is serving a life sentence here for the murder of a young female trainee manager in Limerick's Jurys Inn hotel, to be transferred to a jail in Portugal.
The Minister for Justice has opposed the judicial review challenge by Paulo Nascimento, which includes a claim that the mandatory life sentence for murder may be incompatible with provisions of the Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights.
Nascimento (31), a former member of the Portuguese army, was given the mandatory life sentence in 2003 after he pleaded guilty to the murder of Gráinne Dillon (24), Glounthaune, Cork, at Jurys Inn in Limerick on January 5th, 2002.
The trial heard Nascimento had worked as a night porter at the hotel for just six days before the murder. He shot Ms Dillon after robbing €3,000 from the hotel.
His three-day judicial review challenge concluded yesterday and Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne reserved her decision.
Patrick Gageby SC, for the Minister, had submitted Nascimento would be as "free as a bird" after a maximum 25 years with no supervision if his wish to be transferred is granted.
It was "not unreasonable" for the Minister to refuse the transfer in September 2006 upon taking the view that Nascimento might spend more time in prison here than the average 13½ years served by life sentence prisoners, Mr Gageby said.
Such a view was not unreasonable given what the Minister knew about the circumstances of Nascimento's offence and how it was proposed to structure Nascimento's sentence in Portugal, if transferred.
The proposed sentence in Portugal would be backdated from the time Nascimento went into custody here, which was January 2002, the court was told.
This meant Nascimento, after the maximum 25-year sentence had expired, would be "as free as a bird" in 2027 with no restrictions on him and no supervision post-release, Mr Gageby said.
This contrasted with the situation where, if he served his sentence here, restrictions would remain on him after release.
Nascimento would also be eligible for release in Portugal in 2018 after serving two-thirds of his sentence and it also appeared he was entitled to be freed once he served five-sixths of his sentence, meaning he would be freed in late 2022, counsel said.
Earlier, Bill Shipsey SC, for Nascimento, submitted that, as a "life" sentence in Ireland generally ranged from 12 to 15 years, as evidenced from common knowledge and research undertaken by the Irish Human Rights Commission, the Minister's refusal to sanction the transfer was unreasonable, arbitrary, capricious and in breach of the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Minister's claim that a life sentence is a lawful sentence not requiring periodic assessments as to whether the release of an accused posed a risk to others raises issues about the compatibility of a mandatory life sentence with the Constitution and the ECHR, it was argued.
Nascimento says his family all live in Portugal and he has no family or friends here.
His family are unable to visit and he is a non-national for whom English is a foreign language. Since he had been imprisoned, he had had to be transferred between prisons here because of the behaviour of other prisoners towards a non-national, he says.
