The High Court has rejected an application by a Portuguese man who is serving a life sentence here for murder to be transferred to a jail in his home country.
Paulo Nascimento (31) was jailed for the murder of Gráinne Dillon, a young trainee manager in Limerick's Jurys Inn hotel.
After the judgment, Ms Dillon's mother Pat and her sister Aoife welcomed the court's decision.
Nascimento brought the proceedings to overturn the Minister for Justice's refusal of September 22nd, 2006, to permit his transfer to a Portuguese prison.
Nascimento was given a mandatory life sentence in 2003 after he pleaded guilty to the murder of Ms Dillon (24), Glounthaune, Cork, at Jurys Inn in Limerick on January 5th, 2002.
He had worked as a night porter at the hotel for just six days before the murder. He shot Ms Dillon a number of times after stealing €3,000 from the hotel with a stolen gun.
Nascimento sought a transfer to a Portuguese prison because all his relatives live in Portugal and he has no family or friends here.
Counsel for the family said they were unable to visit him and that he had also been transferred between prisons here because of the behaviour of other prisoners towards him.
It was argued the Minister's refusal to sanction the transfer was unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious and in breach of his rights under the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
In a reserved judgment yesterday, Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne rejected Nascimento's application and upheld the Minister for Justice's refusal.
The judge said she was satisfied the provisions of the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Acts 1995 to 2006 "confer discretion" on the Minister relating to the transfer of prisoners.
Sentenced persons did not have an automatic right to a transfer to their home country, she said. While prisoners "may be transferred" under the provisions of the Acts, there was nothing that stated they must be transferred.
The clear function of the Minister in deciding whether or not to grant an application necessarily involved the exercise of discretion and the Minister may take into consideration a variety of matters in doing so, she said.