Special Criminal Court should be scrapped, says leading lawyer

 A general view of the judge's chairs in the Special Criminal Court. US lawyer Nancy Hollander has called for the court to be abolished.

 A high-profile Guantanamo Bay lawyer has called for the abolition of the Special Criminal Court as it risks convicting innocent people.

US lawyer Nancy Hollander has said it has become "easy" for politicians to maintain the Special Criminal Court, which was originally established to deal with those charged with membership of the IRA and other terrorist organisations, but has morphed into also dealing with gangland crime.

"We need to get rid of this court," she said.

"In the US, we've tried hundreds and hundreds of cases involving material support for terrorism, other branches of alleged terrorist acts, all of them with jury trials. There have been over 500 in New York alone, as far as I know."

She said of the Irish justice system that juries are "fundamental" and the judge should not be the "fact finder" in cases.

"I don't know any other system in the adversarial system that has set up a situation like a Special Criminal Court, except for the US military commissions, which also need to to go."

Intimidation

Dismissing the argument that the court protects against the threat of jury intimidation, she said if there is a real genuine concern the prosecutor should share that concern with the defence, which doesn't happen in the Special Criminal Court.

She added that the argument that people who are referred to the Central Criminal Court are "dangerous" and so need to be tried in this manner doesn't stack up. She said there are many other "dangerous" criminals, including those who commit murders and rape who get jury trials.

"There are people accused of all kinds of things who are tried in a regular court, and that's how it's done in other countries, that's how it's done in Britain, that's how it's done in the US, that's how it's done in other adversarial courts."

Ms Hollander will speak at an event being hosted by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties at 6pm this evening, aimed at ending the use of the Special Criminal Court.

She will be joined on a panel by Osgur Breatnach, who was wrongly convicted at the Court.