Trimbole ruling puts police in dilemma

Press, 7 February 1985, Page 10

Trimbole ruling puts police in dilemma

NZPA-AAP Dublin The Irish police were making contingency plans early to prevent Robert Trimbole from leaving the country in anticipation that the Supreme Court will order his release from Mountjoy Prison. But they are concerned that they may fall foul of Ireland’s courts if they do not give the alleged Australian crime figure a chance to run. Mr Justice Seamus Egan ordered in the High Court at Dublin yesterday Trimbole’s release after criticising police methods in arresting Trimbole outside Dublin on October 25.

He ruled that a bogus charge had been used to keep Trimbole available until arrangements to begin extradition were completed, making all subsequent proceedings unlawful. Trimbole, aged 53, was appealing against a lower court order to extradite him on a total of 18 warrants, including murder, attempted murder, and forging passports. Judge Egan upheld all but

three of the warrants, the constitutionality of which had been contested by a legal team including a British extradition expert and Sean Macßride, winner of the Nobel and Lenin peace prizes. But the Judge ruled that the detention of Trimbqle on a firearms charge under Ireland’s Offences against the State Act was an illegal device to hold him until extradition papers could be drawn up. He called that a gross misuse of the act, amounting to a conscious and deliberate violation of Trimbole’s constitutional rights. “The present' detention of the applicant js tainted by the illegality of his original arrest,” Judge Egan said. “It is the ultimate result of a conscious and deliberate violation of constitutional rights and is accordingly unlawful. I must, therefore, order his immediate release.” It was the second time Judge Egan had ordered the release of Trimbole. In an emergency sitting of the High Court just 24 hours after Trimbole’s detention

in October he ruled that the arrest was illegal because there had been no evidence he carried a gun. Legal sources said yesterday that, if released, an early arrest to restart extradition proceedings was likely to be interpreted by the courts as continuing Trimbole’s “illegal availability.”

The State won a 24-hour reprieve on the release order and the Full Bench was to decide today whether Trimbole should. remain in custody pending a full appeal against the High Court finding which could take several weeks to prepare.

Trimbole’s counsel said when arguing for his immediate release after the judge handed down his finding that their client had “no intention of leaving this jurisdiction.”

Herman Woltring, the Australian Attorney-Gen-eral’s department’s extradition expert, said that the decision was “a major setback” for Australia’s hopes of bringing Trimbole to trial on murder, heroin, and passport charges.