Gardai had 'exceeded their powers' in arrests, says defence

Defence lawyers for seven men accused of membership of the Continuity IRA argued at the Special Criminal Court today that the gardai had no power to arrest the men on suspicion of membership of an illegal organisation without a warrant.

At the end of the prosecution case, counsel for the seven accused submitted that gardai had exceeded their powers under the revised Offences Against the State Act which was brought in after the 1998 Omagh bombing.