The Special Criminal Court has scheduled its first available trial date for April 2017, reflecting significant delays within the non-jury jurisdiction. The court currently manages 32 cases with 19 trials already fixed through the first months of 2017. Among those awaiting trial is a County Longford man charged with possession of an improvised explosive device in connection with an alleged incident in May 2011. His trial is scheduled to commence over five and a half years after the alleged offence occurred. The court has attributed delays partly to procedural challenges and to several lengthy high-profile trials that exceeded their original timeframes. Recent cases include a 29-day murder trial in 2014 and a collapsed 55-day trial in early 2015 requiring retrial. Additionally, a pending Court of Appeal ruling on warrants for IRA membership arrests has created further backlogs across multiple cases. Both bail and remand arrangements remain in place for accused persons awaiting proceedings.
Source links
Original report plus public source leads and related archive reports used for review context.
Public source leads
- Two year wait for trial date in the Special Criminal Court - Irish Independent Irish Independent · Thu, 23 Apr 2015 07:00:00 GMT
- Man (66) jailed for eight years over bomb on bus and threat to queen - Irish Independent Irish Independent · Thu, 15 Dec 2016 08:00:00 GMT
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