Magistrate orders Gilligan extradition

A BRITISH magistrate yesterday ordered the extradition to Ireland of John
Joseph Gilligan (45) to face trial for the murder of the journalist
Veronica Guerin, drug trafficking and the possession of arms and ammunition.

Gilligan, who showed no emotion when Magistrate David Cooper gave his
decision at Belmarsh Court, has 15 days in which to lodge an appeal.

Should this fail, he will be taken from Belmarsh high security prison,
where he has been in custody since last October, to London Airport to be
handed over to a Garda officer and taken to Dublin.

Mr Cooper, who told Gilligan at a hearing last week that he would be cited
for contempt of court for refusing to stand when he was given an
adjournment ruling, has dropped those proceedings.

"In the light of my ruling today I won't take it any further", he told
Gilligan.

During yesterday's hearing which lasted an hour and a half, the
prosecution, led by Nigel Peters QC, was challenged about the particulars
of the Irish warrant alleging that Gilligan had murdered Veronica Guerin.

"The prosecution has not alleged whether Gilligan was the trigger man,
whether he bought the gun, whether he paid the trigger man or what was his
precise role", Julian Knowles, counsel for Gilligan, declared.

He told the magistrate the role which Gilligan played was not set out and
what the court needed to know was what conduct Gilligan was guilty of
before the magistrate could make the order for his extradition, Mr Knowles
said.

He argued that some evidence of conduct was essential and some
particularity was needed. "What was disclosed was not enough", he added.

Mr Knowles argued that a "conduct test" which indicated some particulars of
the charges in the warrants had to be set out before Mr Cooper could make
the order.

The conduct test was whether the acts or omissions of Gilligan had
sufficiently demonstrated double criminality.

Mr Peters argued that the particulars set out in the warrants were
sufficient, a view which was later sustained by the magistrate.

Mr Peters, detailing correspondence between British and Irish law, pointed
out that the relationships between the two countries were unique.

No passports were required and citizens had voting rights in both
countries. The situation was wholly unique in international law, he said.

Mr Cooper, giving his decision, said that evidence which had been given by
an Irish legal expert about the correspondence between the two legal
systems was sufficient to persuade him that the offences had such
correspondence.

John Gilligan will appear at a special sitting of Woolwich Crown Court
tomorrow when earlier charges preferred against him after his arrest at
London Heathrow Airport in October last year will be reviewed.

These charges, which included drug trafficking and the laundering of drug
money, were technically adjourned when twelve Irish warrants for the
extradition of Gilligan to Ireland were substituted at Belmarsh Court.

It was then agreed that the extradition proceedings and their outcome would
be made known to the presiding judge.