An entirely justified response - The Special Criminal Court

SINN FÉIN would have preferred not to have to highlight their ill-judged and self-serving campaign to abolish the Special Criminal Court (SCC) just as tit-for-tat gangland murders claimed two victims in Dublin, once again underlining how essential such an option is in our justice system.

They would have preferred too if they could have chosen a week other than the one Gerry Adams’s “good republican” Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy is due to be sentenced, after being convicted in the SCC of tax evasion.

The Dublin killings, and more particularly the criminal culture from which they spring, show contempt for any idea of the rule of law, a contempt that includes routinely interfering with our courts to prevent convictions and consequential jail terms. All too often, and all too understandably, key witnesses have succumbed to an induced bout of amnesia and withdrawn statements given to gardaí, statements that if repeated under oath in court would have led to convictions for some of this country’s most dangerous criminals — some of whom enjoy a freedom secured by threatening witnesses.

That unattractive reality is countered by the existence of the SCC, which is usually presided over by three judges — one each from the High Court, the Circuit Court, and the District Court — and is primarily involved in prosecuting both terrorist offences and those involving gangland crimes.

In an ideal world there would not be a need for non-jury courts but in an ideal world jury members would not be intimidated or threatened with murder either. In an ideal world a democratically established and ruled Republic should not be challenged by armed terrorists only too willing to silence those who might testify against them. Sadly, experience teaches us we do not live in that kind of a world.

So the choice is simple enough — establish a secure and trustworthy arm of our court service that is, as far as these things are possible, beyond the reach of those who would intimidate witnesses or let those thugs, criminal or terrorist, decide who may or may not be convicted by our courts. The choice is, and this is the realpolitik of the day, stand up or roll over to those who don’t recognise much less play by the rules. And for all its dysfunction this Republic is still very much worth standing up for and if that means having a tool like the SCC then so be it.

This view is not universally shared. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties said last October that “the SCC was created as an extraordinary court in extraordinary times; however, no reasonable person could today claim that there is a public emergency threatening the life of the nation”. The recent gangland murders and the claim made by the Continuity IRA that they carried out Friday’s attack and planned more, should provoke a review of that sugar-candy-mountain position. The UN Human Rights Commission has called for the court’s abolition on several occasions too.

The SCC Court may not be an ideal way of celebrating justice administered by one’s peers but it is an entirely justified response to those who care little or nothing for this State and regularly threaten its integrity with appalling violence.