THE failure of the extradition application for Mr Anthony Duncan in the Dublin District Court last month was due to the mislaying by gardai of an original warrant received from the UK authorities, the Minister for Justice has admitted.
Mrs Owen informed the Dail yesterday that a Garda investigation into the case had concluded that the original warrant "had been destroyed accidentally" while copies of it were being made by gardai.
The Progressive Democrats' spokesperson on Justice, Ms Liz O'Donnell, last night accused the Minister of seeking to blame the garda for "this comedy of errors compounded by a misleading accusation against the British".
Immediately after the court case Government sources had informed the media that "the fault lay in London and discounted British protests that they had supplied correct documentation", she said, in a statement.
Ms O'Donnell added: "Since the British attorney general's resignation was called for on foot of the Irish Government's accusations, the question now arises as to whether anyone in Ireland will accept responsibility."
Earlier, in a written Dail reply to Ms O'Donnell, Mrs Owen stated it had now been established that proper documentation had been received from the UK authorities but that a copy of the original warrant had been presented by gardai to the court. "An extensive search failed to locate the original warrant," she said
The Minister added that responsibility for ensuring that the original documents required in extradition cases were available to the court rested with the Garda. Mrs Owen stated that this was the first time an error of the kind had occurred.
She also indicated that the failure of the extradition proceedings on April 13th did not preclude "a further application being made for the extradition of the person in question who is now in custody here in connection with another matter".