The Special Criminal Court is unacceptable. It has no place in a democracy.
The Court deviates from nearly all of the fair trial norms that one would expect of a country which holds human rights as key values. It allows people to be convicted on the basis of the “belief” of the Gardaí that that person has committed an offence. It allows people to be convicted on the basis of “inferences” and secret information contained in documents that are not disclosed to the defence. It gives unprecedented power to the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide whether matters should be tried without a jury – even where no possible jury intimidation arises. It allows people to be tried without a jury.
Irish law strongly protects the rights of people accused of crime, both through the Constitution and through the common law as developed through decades of case law. The Special Criminal Court deviates significantly from these protections, allowing the rights of accused persons to be diluted to an unacceptably low standard.
A review of the Court is underway, half a century after it was established as a temporary measure.