Organised Crime, The Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009 And Us

The Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009, which is expected to become law before the Oireachtas summer recess, is claimed to strengthen the powers of civil authorities to cope with organised crimes. Minister Dermot Ahern has called the legislation “ground breaking” and given the systemic gangland problems that exist in Ireland, there will be a large percentage of the population that will welcome it with open arms. However, organisations such as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) face the unpopular task of being the voice of reason when such pieces of legislation are set to come to pass.

Mark Kelly from the ICCL has stated that provisions within the Bill such as “secret detention hearings and detention on the unsupported word of a single Garda, trample upon the rule of law.” The IHRC for their part have said that “in light of the human rights implications of the 2009 Bill sufficient time is not being granted for full consideration of the legislative proposal by the Houses of the Oireachtas most importantly and also by the IHRC.” (Maurice Manning). It would seem an ill-advised move therefore, for the Irish Government to rush through legislation which could have drastic consequences upon the civil liberties of the people of Ireland.

The Bill provides that organised criminal offences will be tried in the Special Criminal Court. Such crimes will equate to offences against the State (and therefore fall within the Act bearing the same name) and give rise to non-jury legal proceedings. Interestingly, the media coverage of many organised crime cases has focused on the intimidation of witnesses rather than on jury tampering and there has been no evidence produced that juries are being inappropriately influenced. Therefore, since witnesses are identified in sittings of the Special Criminal Court, intimidation will still be possible and all that will be achieved will be the removal of a tenant of a fair trial. It should also be noted that the UN Human Rights Committee has previously criticised Ireland for the ongoing existence of the Special Criminal Court.

Furthermore, the Bill also purports to make changes in relation to another long standing legal right, the right of silence. Section 72(A) will be inserted into the Criminal Justice Act 2006 which includes the curious expression “any question material to the investigation”. This very general term means that inferences can be drawn if an accused exercises his/her right to silence and refuses to answer such a question. The Irish Times reported that expert Garda opinion on the operations of criminal gangs, which the Bill makes admissible in evidence, may include hearsay. This is extremely worrying given that such evidence is not based on personal experience or knowledge but rather is second hand.

Although it is a far from enviable task to draft legislation in relation to organised crime, the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009 needs to be re-written. It will be undoubtedly easy for members of the public to accept the Bill as it stands, given the damaging effects to Irish society that organised crime is having, but before such acceptance, people should read it for themselves and be aware of the negative implications: http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/bills/2009/4509/b4509d.pdf