Three UK citizens who were arrested on drugs charges following the detention of their converted trawler off the south coast of Ireland six months ago have claimed in the High Court that the State has used unlawful means to detain them.
Mr Justice Lavan will give a decision tomorrow on the application by the three men for leave to seek an order, by way of judicial review, prohibiting the DPP from continuing criminal proceedings against them.
The three men are also asking the court for an order quashing a certificate issued by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in relation to the arrest of the ship by the Naval Service.
The applicants - Mr Barry Court, Mr Richard George Preece and Mr Matthew Paul Simpkins - are charged with having cannabis resin on November 16th, 1999, for sale or supply.
In court yesterday, Mr Thomas F. Creed, for Mr Simpkins, said Naval Service personnel had boarded the UK registered ship Posidonia about six miles southwest of Fastnet Rock.
On May 15th last, the applicants had appeared before Cork Circuit Court but the trial was adjourned after counsel for the DPP told Judge Anthony Murphy that there was concern on the part of the State about a possible jurisdictional difficulty which might be fundamental to the prosecution.
Mr Plunkett Taaffe, solicitor, for Mr Simpkins, said in an affidavit that the DPP's counsel had told the court they needed time to research whether a certificate would be required from the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The DPP also wanted to research whether the three were "aliens" and his lawyers needed time to investigate "in the hope it might transpire that citizens of England and Northern Ireland were not aliens in Irish law".
Mr Taaffe said Judge Murphy adjourned the hearing until the next day despite objections. Counsel for the DPP had then applied for a nolle prosequi and said it was proposed to start fresh criminal proceedings against the three.
Judge Murphy acceded to the State's application for a nolle pro- sequi and discharged the three men, who were immediately rearrested and charged.
Mr Creed said it was clear from Mr Taaffe's affidavit that the DPP had used the adjournment to obtain the relevant certificate from the Minister for Foreign Affairs because it had been available the following day. The State had had the position regularised, entered a nolle prosequi, and started again, he argued.
The whole thing had been done to allow the State "get its act together", Mr Creed said. The State had used "unlawful means" to secure the detention of the three men until it had regularised the position and could proceed. The men were currently being held in custody.