A claim by a Co Louth man that he is being unlawfully detained on foot of an order for his extradition to Spain on a charge of the alleged homicide of his wife there was rejected by the High Court yesterday.
On May 27th, the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, made an order for the extradition of Michael Dermot McArdle (36), Brookfield, Heynestown, Dundalk.
The order was the first to be made here under the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003, which came into effect in January 2004.
Mr McArdle's extradition was sought on a charge of alleged homicide of his wife Kelly Anne, who died following a fall from a hotel balcony in Marbella on February 12th, 2000.
Last week he brought proceedings under article 40 of the Constitution challenging the lawfulness of his detention in Clover Hill prison on grounds of an alleged error in the committal warrant. The application was heard by Mr Justice Michael Peart who, in a reserved judgment, dismissed the claim.
The judge said the State had accepted there was an error in the committal warrant in that it stated the extradition order was made under section 16.2 of the European Arrest Warrant Acts 2003 when the order had to be made under section 16.1.
Mr Justice Peart said there could be no doubt from the judgment of Mr Justice Finnegan that the latter had decided to grant an order under section 16.1.
Mr Justice Finnegan had never mentioned section 16.2 in his decision, and the latter section did not apply to the McArdle case. The State had said the incorrect sub-section was inserted in the committal warrant through human error. The error, the State argued, did not go far enough to result in unlawful detention.
He was satisfied Mr Justice Finnegan had intended to make the section 16.1 order. He was also satisfied no fundamental right of Mr McArdle had been breached by the error.