Cartoonist murder plot: Phone-call accused loses warrant challenge

A man has lost his High Court challenge over a warrant used to search his home during a garda investigation into an alleged conspiracy to murder a Swedish cartoonist who drew a picture of the prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.

Ali Charaf Damache (aged 45), an Algerian with an address at John Colwyn House, High Street, Waterford, has claimed it was unconstitutional for a senior garda involved in that investigation to issue a warrant to search his home on March 9, 2010.

He claimed the warrant should have been issued by an independent authority such as a judge or a peace commissioner.

High Court president, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns this morning dismissed proceedings brought by Mr Damache against the DPP, Ireland and the Attorney General on the grounds that the application was brought well outside the three-month period provided for by the Rules of the Superior Courts.

The warrant was issued in March 2010, and a book of evidence was served on him the following May. However the application for leave to bring judicial review was only brought in December 2010.

The judge said that Mr Damache's application was not brought with the necessary degree of promptitude which is appropriate to the remedy of judicial review.

The "fatal delay" in a case that raised "issues of some importance" concerning "State security", the judge added, "also reinforced an unfortunate impression that the judicial review process in this and other criminal cases is being deployed in such a fashion as to delay the ordinary course of criminal trials in this jurisdiction."

"In recent years a number of judges including myself have commented unfavourably about the bringing of very late applications of this nature and it is a practise that must stop if due respect for our criminal process is to be maintained," he added.

Mr Damache was a suspect in a conspiracy to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks over his "dog" depiction of Mohammed which provoked serious unrest in Muslim countries.

An investigation into that alleged conspiracy was commenced by Det Superintendent Dominic Hayes, of Waterford garda station, in September 2009.

In January 2010, it is alleged Mr Damache made a phone call to an American lawyer who had been featured in publicity about a protest outside a Detroit court when a man was charged with attempting to bomb a Netherlands-Detroit bound plane on Christmas Day 2009.

The attorney had made the protest to show most Muslims did not support such attacks and he later allegedly received a phone call from Mr Damache in which he (Damache) said he would "put a bullet in his head" and even though he lived in the US, "he would get him and he would pay", the court heard.

Following a search of his home on March 9, 2010, he was charged with making a menacing phone call and has been in custody since.

He brought High Court judicial review proceedings seeking a declaration that the law under which the warrant was issued is unconstitutional.

It was issued under Section 29 of the Offences Against the State Act, which provides that a garda, not below the rank of Superintendent, is entitled to issue a warrant.