Seven Dublin men have been cleared of IRA membership by the Special Criminal Court after the prosecution case against them collapsed following a court ruling on evidence.
Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding at the non-jury court, directed that the seven men should be acquitted after prosecuting counsel Tara Burns SC said that the DPP would not be offering any more evidence.
The court earlier this week ruled that the belief evidence of a garda chief superintendent that the men were IRA members was not admissible.
Det Chief Superintendent Peter Kirwan, the head of security and intelligence at Garda headquarters, previously told the court that he believed on the basis of confidential information that all seven of the accused were members of the IRA.
Mr Kirwan claimed privilege in relation to the sources of the confidential information, but during cross-examination he admitted that it was based on human sources and telephone intercepts.
Inadmissible evidence
On Tuesday, Mr Justice Paul Butler said that this evidence had not been disclosed in advance to the defence and a “basic unfairness of procedure” in the case had resulted. The judge said the only remedy was to rule the belief evidence as inadmissible.
The seven men acquitted by the court are: Kevin Braney (40), of Glenshane Crescent, Tallaght, Dublin, Des Christie (50), of Liam Mellows Road, Finglas, Dublin, Hubert Duffy (47), of George’s Place, Dublin, William Jackson (55), of Doon Court, Poppintree, Dublin, Declan Phelan (33), of Lanndale Lawns, Tallaght, Dublin, John Brock (42), of Glenview Park, Tallaght, and Darren Murphy (44), of Rory O’Connor House, Dublin.
All seven had pleaded not guilty to membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, or the IRA, on March 29th, 2013.
During a 21-day trial, the prosecution had claimed that the seven men were part of an IRA operation to extort money from a used-car dealer in Clondalkin, Dublin and that they had travelled to the car dealership for that purpose.
The court heard that members of the Emergency Response Unit and the Special Detective Unit moved in to arrest the men at the dealership and that a number of items were recovered from the scene.
In follow up searches of two vans, an office and a kitchen, gardaí found cable ties, gloves, balaclavas, a baseball bat, a lump hammer, a pepper spray and a Glock pistol.
The prosecution case relied on observations of the men by gardaí on the morning of their arrest, items found at the scene, their response to questioning during interviews and the opinion evidence of Mr Kirwan.