An application for bail by Angelo Fusco, who is challenging an attempt to extradite him to Northern Ireland to serve a sentence for the murder of SAS captain Herbert Westmacott, was rejected by the High Court yesterday.
The application was opposed by the State. A previous bail application before Mr Justice Finnegan last month had also been refused.
When the extradition proceedings were again before Mr Justice Finnegan last week, Dr Michael Forde SC, for Fusco, said his side had filed legal documents for the purposes of the judicial review challenge being taken by his client. Those proceedings were adjourned to an unspecified date.
Yesterday, Dr Forde submitted that it appeared the extradition proceedings would take far longer than originally anticipated. If there was not a trial until the end of March, and almost certainly a reserved judgment, a decision might not be handed down until May.
Refusing bail, Mr Justice O Caoimh said he was being asked to assume that there would be a much greater delay than had been envisaged. He did not have a "crystal ball." He could not predict the length of time the case would take at this stage.
It seemed that the application now, a matter of weeks after Mr Justice Finnegan had dealt with a previous one, could only be stated to be premature.
Asked by Dr Forde if he could have liberty to renew the application later, Mr Justice O Caoimh said it seemed the appropriate person to address that matter would be Mr Justice Finnegan.
A previous hearing was told Fusco escaped from Crumlin Road prison in 1981 and was convicted and sentenced to jail in his absence for the murder of Capt Westmacott. In 1982 he was arrested in Tralee and jailed for 10 years.
Extradition proceedings were then begun. Fusco won his extradition challenge in the High Court but its decision was reversed by the Supreme Court in 1998. Last December, he was arrested at a Garda checkpoint in Castleisland, Co Kerry. While he was being escorted by gardai to the Border, Mr Justice Finnegan granted an injunction restraining his extradition.