An application to jail the Garda Commissioner for alleged contempt of a court order is being considered by the High Court.An application to jail the Garda Commissioner for alleged contempt of a court order is being considered by the High Court.
Mr Justice Peart said yesterday his reserved judgment on the matter, heard just over a fortnight ago, was still not ready for delivery.
The application to jail the Commissioner, or otherwise appropriately penalise him, had been made by Mr Michael Forde SC, counsel for six Nigerians deported on a charter flight last April 7th while a High Court order restraining their deportation was in being.
Mr Forde told the court that on April 6th solicitors for the six, which included a family of three, had faxed the Garda National Immigration Bureau asking that they should not be deported.
On that afternoon the six had been arrested and their mobile phones seized and turned off. At about 11 p.m. on April 6th, an ex- parte application had been heard before Mr Justice Gilligan who, half an hour later, restrained their deportation and directed they be brought before the High Court on a writ of habeas corpus the next day.
Mr Justice Peart had heard at the July 30th committal proceedings that, at approximately 12 midnight, the six, accompanied by Garda officers, had been put on a plane the Minister for Justice had chartered to take them to Nigeria against their will.
The plane had taken off at 12:20 a.m. At about 1 a.m. on April 7th, the Nigerians' solicitors had told the Garda authorities by telephone of Mr Justice Gilligan's orders, followed by three fax messages calling for the immediate return of the deportees.
The case put to Mr Justice Peart on July 30th was that no attempt had been made by gardaí on April 7th to communicate information to appropriate sources to secure compliance with Mr Justice Gilligan's orders.
Mr Forde had argued that no endeavour had been made to secure compliance with the order to produce the six in the High Court on April 7th, nor had any explanation been offered by the Commissioner as to why he had not been able to comply with the court orders.
When the Nigerians' legal team opened a new application yesterday, seeking orders directing their return, the court was told the State believed the hearing was in relation to the attempt to attach and commit the Garda Commissioner.
When Mr Justice Peart confirmed that his reserved judgment on the Garda Commissioner's alleged contempt was not ready and that yesterday's hearing sought the return of the deportees, the application was adjourned until Thursday to allow the State present its case.
Mr Forde contends that none of the Nigerians deported could lawfully enter Ireland to give evidence, since they are the subjects of deportation orders.
It is also alleged gardaí have lost or destroyed records of communications sent to them by solicitors of the Nigerian six on April 6th.