Minister defends life sentence

A FINE GAEL demand that there be a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years for gangland murders was rejected by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern.

FG justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan suggested the mandatory sentence as one of a series of measures to address the “drug-fuelled gangland activity of cold-blooded criminals’’.

He accused Mr Ahern of losing the war on crime.

Mr Ahern said he had difficulty with the concept of a life sentence expressed in years. “Life sentences are already mandatory for any type of murder in this jurisdiction. A person who receives such a sentence is subject to that sentence for the rest of their natural life, and they have no entitlement to be released after serving a specified period of imprisonment.’’