The Director of Public Prosecutions has been asked to examine whether veteran republican Seán Garland should be charged over an alleged US super-dollar forgery plot.
The High Court referred the case to the DPP’s office after refusing an extradition request from American authorities for the former Workers Party president.
The US Secret Service had accused Mr Garland (77) of conspiring to circulate high-grade counterfeit $100 bills throughout the 1990s in a plot which included North Korea, Russian spies and the former leader of the Official IRA.
Mr Justice John Edwards made the referral to the DPP based on US claims that much of the alleged forgery plot took place on Irish soil.
Lawyers for Mr Garland said: “All these allegations made by the Americans have been in the public domain for years.”
Mr Garland was first arrested on foot of the US extradition warrant in 2005 in Northern Ireland. He then fled to Dublin when he was released on bail.
Mr Garland who has always protested his innocence, was later arrested in 2009 and released on strict bail conditions, which included surrendering the deeds to his family home.
Mr Justice John Edwards, who ruled in December the extradition application would be refused, announced today that the deeds to Mr Garland’s house would be released along with his passport and cash bail of €75,000.
Mr Garland was a former IRA leader in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was a key figure in securing the official IRA ceasefire of May 1972.