BlackPope in the High Court Update - Monday 8th March

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Monday March 08, 2004 23:11 by redjade

{ photo by redjade } (c)

High Court Update from Monday 8th March
by BlackPope

Today in the High Court Owen Rice was granted leave to seek a judicial review of Judge Mangan's decision to ban him from Co. Clare (made in Shannon on 12 February).

Judge Herbert agreed that there were grounds to test whether District Court Judge Mangan had acted 'Ultra Vires' (beyond his authority) in imposing the ban on Owen Rice.

The Application for a writ of Habeus Corpus (that the detention was unlawful) was denied on the grounds that the order for commital to prison was 'valid on it's face' (i.e. was signed by an actual District Court Judge without spelling mistakes); the High Court Judge would not 'look behind the warrant' (i.e. investigate how it arose) as this will be decided in the Judicial Review.

This is the same reasoning adopted by Justice Finnegan on 25th February 2004, which seems to contradict the attitude this same Judge adopted on Friday last, when the Habeus Corpus was adjourned specifically so that it could be fought out today. The possibility is open to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court as a point of general legal interest.

The argument over bail conditions was, after some confusion over who consented to what, stayed until Wednesday 2pm in Court 9.

[For a brief while it looked likely Mr. Rice would be taken back into custody, as he refused to accept the continued current bail condition until such times as the Judicial Review is decided - which could be many months hence. The Judge narrowly managed to avoid this predicament by adopting a pragmatic and flexible attitude.]

On Wednesday Mr. Rice will be argueing to vary the bail conditions back to the original 5Euro without further conditions.

The state may or may not oppose this, but it is difficult at this point in time to imagine what actual evidence they might present to justify any exclusion zone at all. However, we shall see!

There are still front-row spectator seats to be had - they're free! - let's jam-pack the place. Media should be encouraged to attend.

Shalom, __ BP