The use of the Special Criminal Court for non-subversive crime cases is set to be reviewed following an interim report from a committee set up to consider the Offences Against the State Act.
The committee, chaired by Mr Justice Hederman, was set up under the Belfast Agreement. It has been considering the Offences Against the State Act since May 1999, and produced an interim report following international scrutiny of the Act.
The UN Human Rights Committee found in April of this year that sending cases to the Special Criminal Court on the basis of a certificate from the DPP without any explanation violated the rights of the accused to a jury trial.
The case was taken by Joseph Kavanagh, who was convicted in 1997 of a number of offences relating to the kidnapping of the chief executive of National Irish Bank, Mr Jim Lacey.
Although only one of the seven charges was a scheduled offence under the Offences Against the State Act, he was tried in the Special Criminal Court and sentenced to 12 years.
The UN committee ruled that the State had failed to demonstrate that the decision to try Kavanagh before the Special Criminal Court was based on reasonable and objective grounds.
"Accordingly, the committee concludes that the author's right to equality before the law, and to equal protection of the law, has been violated.".
As a contracting party to the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the State has 90 days to outline what reliefs it will grant to Kavanagh.
The State received official notification on May 4th.
So far no response from the State has been sent to the UN committee. It is understood that the committee on the Offences Against the State Act sent its views on this aspect of the legislation to the Minister for Justice some weeks ago to assist the Government in formulating its response.
A spokesman for the Department told The Irish Times that the Government was actively considering the committee's report.
It is also understood that the interim report examines the entire process whereby cases are sent to the Special Criminal Court, and the possibility of opening up the process to independent scrutiny.
Meanwhile, lawyers for Kavanagh sought his release in the High Court last week, but Mr Justice Finnegan refused leave to apply for judicial review. This refusal will be appealed to the Supreme Court.
An earlier judicial review of the decision to send Kavanagh for trial to the Special Criminal Court failed in the High Court in 1996.
The members of the committee reviewing the Offences Against the State Act are Mr Justice Hederman, Mr Gerard Hogan SC, Mr Eamonn Leahy SC, Prof Dermot Walsh, Prof William Binchy, the former Garda deputy commissioner, Mr P.J. Moran, and representatives the Attorney General's office and the Departments of Justice, Defence and Foreign Affairs.