Lawyers representing a fugitive millionaire accused of arranging his wife's murder will argue tomorrow that his Irish citizenship should prevent his extradition to the United States on a death penalty case.
Mr James Vincent Sullivan (61) is accused of paying a hitman $25,000 to kill Ms Lita McClinton Sullivan (35) at her Atlanta home, to avoid paying millions of dollars in a divorce settlement.
However, his lawyers are to argue that he should not be extradited from his hideaway home in Thailand because he is an Irish citizen and Atlanta prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, which the Republic opposes.
Mr Sullivan's Atlanta lawyer, Mr Ed Garland, said yesterday that his legal partner, Mr Don Samuel, and a high-profile Bangkok lawyer, Mr Puttri Kuvanonda, would argue in a Bangkok court that Mr Sullivan was a citizen of Ireland, which strongly opposed the death penalty.
"We will be pressing that point very hard to the judge," he said. "This extradition would deny my client's fundamental rights as an Irish citizen."
A source close to the Thai defence team said it had already had discussions with the Irish embassy in Thailand and believed the Irish Government would back its case.
Mr Sullivan, whose grandparents were Irish, applied for an Irish passport six months after Ms McClinton Sullivan's family were awarded $4.6 million against him in a civil action for unlawful killing - money they have yet to receive.
On August 16th, 1994, he applied for the passport through a New York lawyer, who wrote to the Irish consulate in New York requesting that it speed up the process because his client would be "travelling extensively in the near future".
Mr Sullivan was granted an Irish passport a month later. Before he was charged with murder in April 1998, he fled the US, using his Irish passport to enter three countries before settling in Thailand, where he lived for five years at a coastal resort.
He was arrested after a tip-off from a viewer of the American television show, America's Most Wanted.
The programme showed how a gunman shot Ms McClinton Sullivan in the head at her home on January 16th, 1987, after first convincing her to open the door by posing as a delivery man carrying a dozen pink roses.
Atlanta prosecutors are now seeking the death penalty for Mr Sullivan and the extradition is strongly supported by Ms McClinton Sullivan's mother, Ms JoAnn McClinton, a Georgia state legislator.
Ms McClinton Sullivan's alleged killer, Mr Phillip Anthony Harwood, was arrested in April 1998 and remains in an Atlanta jail without bond.
His trial is scheduled for February 18th.
Prosecutors are also seeking the death penalty in that case.