Ex-Workers' Party president Garland arrested

The former president of the Workers' Party was arrested in Dublin today. in connection with a long-running extradition case.

Seán Garland (74), a former leader of the Offical IRA, was arrested on foot of an extradition warrent from the US outside the Workers' Party head office in Mountjoy Square, Dublin, this morning.

He was remanded to Cloverhill Prison and is expected to appear in court again on Wednesday.

Mr Garland faces possible extradition to the US over an alleged role in counterfeiting large quantities of $100 notes which were distributed around the world.

The party's current president Michael Finnegan described the arrest of Mr Garland as outrageous and said Mr Garland had previously been in touch with gardaí through his legal representatives and made it clear that he was willing and able to speak to them at any time.

"There was no need to arrest Seán Garland. He has been in exceptionally bad health over the past months, he had a serious operation because he developed cancer of the bowel and Seán is also a diabetic, so to do this at this time is unbelievable," said Mr Finnegan.

A previous indictment handed down by a US grand jury in May 2005 alleged that since the early 1990s

Mr Garland and others engaged in buying and transporting large quantities of high-quality, counterfeit $100 notes that were passed on as genuine or resold.

Mr Garland, who stepped down as president of the Workers' Party last year due to ill health, has previously said he would fight any attempt at extradition to the United States through the Irish courts.

Senator Eoghan Harris also condemned the arrest of Sean Garland.

Speaking to The Irish Timeshe said: "Although there are deep and bitter divisions between myself and Seán Garland, that go back to my resignation from the Workers Party in 1989, I deplore the singling-out of an old, sick republican, who led the Official IRA to ceasefire in 1972 and who is charged with a major, but bloodless, crime of alleged forgery," he said.

"It is baffling that in the week in which the Eames-Bradley report effectively puts a full stop to opening the wounds of the past, that Sean Garland should be singled out for this unique persecution.”