Mr John Gilligan, who is fighting extradition to Ireland in connection with the murder of the journalist, Ms Veronica Guerin, was further remanded in custody yesterday at Woolwich Crown Court.
Custody time limits were extended until January 18th after Mr Shane Colleary, for the Crown, presented a formal application to the court. Ms Janine Vaughan-Brown, for Mr Gilligan, objected to the extension of the custody time limits, pointing out that her client had been in custody in Belmarsh high security prison since shortly after his arrest on October 6th, 1996.
Mr Justice James Rucker told Ms Vaughan-Brown that the "true reason" for the delay in hearing Mr Gilligan's case on drug-trafficking charges in Britain was that the "much more important matter" of extradition was being pursued.
Mr Gilligan, who was in court for the 10-minute hearing, has been granted leave to appeal to the House of Lords to overturn a court ruling allowing the British drug-trafficking trial to go ahead if his extradition to Ireland fails. That hearing is expected to take place in February.
The defence is also seeking a date in mid-December for an abuse of process hearing during which it will argue that the extradition process was manipulated to allow gardai more time to collect evidence against Mr Gilligan. The defence will also argue that a decision last September to put the drug-trafficking charges on file was an abuse of process.