Romanian refugee Dumitru Popa was rearrested outside the High Court by members of the Garda National Immigration Bureau yesterday only minutes after he had been declared a free man by Mr Justice Quirke.
Mr Justice Quirke held that Mr Popa had been unlawfully detained at Dublin Airport on August 1st last after having been flown back from Amsterdam when his deportation to Bucharest was halted.
It was alleged in court that gardai escorting him to Bucharest had been led to believe by Mr Con Pendred, Mr Popa's solicitor, that another High Court judge, Mr Justice Herbert, had ordered his return, when no such order had been made.
Yesterday, Dr Michael Forde SC, counsel for Mr Popa, submitted that his client had been unlawfully detained on his return to Dublin Airport because any lawful authority for his detention had evaporated in thin air - once the aircraft left Ireland.
Dr Forde based his argument on Section 2 of the Immigration Act 1999, which states that a person arrested and detained may be placed on a ship, railway train, road vehicle or aircraft about to leave the State by an immigration officer or member of the Garda Siochana and shall be deemed to be in lawful custody while so detained "until the ship, railway train, road vehicle or aircraft leaves the State".
Mr Justice Quirke had heard that the Minister for Justice had decided to deport Mr Popa, who had failed to keep gardai informed of any change of address and further failed to prosecute his appeal against the Minister's order.
Gardai said he had gone to London and had returned to Ireland with falsified Italian identity papers. He had claimed to be an Italian when gardai arrived at a Rathmines bed-sit on August 1st to deport him.
The judge held that Mr Popa had been arrested lawfully on August 1st by gardai, who had reasonable cause to suspect that the deportation order in force related to him. He said that the arresting gardai had acted quite lawfully under Section 2 of the Immigration Act in detaining him and placing him on board the aircraft with the intention of implementing the deportation order.
Mr Justice Quirke said he was satisfied that Mr Popa was in lawful custody until the aircraft left the State en route for Bucharest and that, on arrival in Amsterdam, the accompanying gardai had received certain information.
A member of the escort, Det Garda Cormac Brennan, had asked Mr Popa if he had any objection to returning to Dublin, and no objection had been raised. It was significant that Det Garda Brennan had felt it appropriate to ask Mr Popa if he had any objection to returning, so there would be no question of coercion or detention at that point.
"Garda Brennan's question to Mr Popa is consistent with the legality of the custody having expired when the aircraft had left the State", Mr Justice Quirke said.
On returning to Dublin, Mr Popa had been detained on foot of a series of applications which had been made in court, and he did not intend to determine if faults applied in that matter, the judge said.
He was satisfied that when Mr Popa returned to Ireland there was no lawful authority in existence which would enable the State to keep him in a place of detention against his will. He granted an order of habeus corpus releasing Mr Popa from detention.
Det Supt Michael Finn, of the Garda National Immigration Bureau, told Mr Popa's solicitor, Mr Pendred, that the authorities intended to arrest his client once he left the precincts of the court.