The High Court has refused convicted drug dealer John Gilligan legal aid for the latest stage of his court battle aimed at stopping the Criminal Assets Bureau securing an estimated €17 million in assets belonging to him.
Gilligan, who is serving a 20-year jail term for having cannabis for sale or supply, had applied for legal aid for his constitutional challenge to provisions of the Proceeds Against Crime Act 1996, which provides for the freezing of assets believed to be the proceeds of crime.
Mr Justice Kevin Feeney today refused to grant legal aid but fixed Gilligan's case for hearing on June 26th.
The judge said he was being asked to give legal aid in proceedings, a substantial part of which involved asking the High Court to review an earlier Supreme Court decision which upheld the constitutionality of Section 3 of the 1996 Act. What was now before the court was a "collateral attack" on the Supreme Court decision.
The High Court could not be used as a review court of Supreme Court decisions, the judge said.
Earlier, in an affidavit grounding his application, Gilligan denied he had transferred large sums of money from a bank account held in this country into the name of his estranged wife Geraldine.
He also denied that he had substantial assets. His assets had been the subject of a freezing order since July 1997. He has not held a bank account anywhere in the last 20 years, he also said.
Gilligan lost his final appeal in the Supreme Court in 2005 against his conviction on drug charges.
After a lengthy trial which began in late 2000, the non-jury Special Criminal Court had cleared Gilligan in 2001 of the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin in June 1996 and also acquitted him of firearms charges. The court convicted him of possession of an estimated 20,000 kilograms of cannabis resin over a two year period and he was jailed for 28 years which was later reduced on appeal to 20 years.
The confiscation orders being sought by CAB relate to a number of properties, including Jessbrook Equestrian Centre and lands at Mucklon, Enfield, Co Kildare, and two houses in Lucan, Dublin.