Shareholders in GlaxoSmithkline who have received a threatening letter from anti-vivisection campaigners have been advised to contact their local gardaí.
The husband of former minister for justice Nora Owen is among the Irish Glaxo shareholders who have received a letter demanding the sale of his shares because of the firm's use of animal research laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) in Britain.
The unsigned letter threatens to publish the personal details of shareholders on an unnamed Web site if they do not dispose of their interest in Glaxo within 14 days.
Ms Owen told RTÉ radio this morning the letter had been received yesterday and that it they would be passing the details on to gardaí this morning.
"My husband opened the letter and he kind of looked at it, read it and then said 'Oh' and he handed it over to me to have a look at and I sensed that it was something that I should follow up and he thought it should be followed up as well," Ms Owen said.
Around 160 shareholders have been threatened. I reland.comunderstands, an investor in Co Cork last week contacted gardaí about one of the letters.
The letters have been in circulation for over a week and Glaxo secured a high court injunction last night against an unknown group of animal rights activists, preventing them from carrying out their threat.
Any letters sent out after last night could lead to those responsible being sent to jail, under the terms of the injunction.
It is thought that, because the threat is to publish the names on a Web site, the injunction will also restrict the release of details of shareholders based in Ireland. It is the first time such an injunction has been granted to a company in Britain.
Glaxo employees have been targetted and assaulted in the past by extremists who want an end to all testing on animals.
Police in Britain are taking the matter seriously and a Garda spokeswoman said the letters would likely fall under the terms of Irish laws governing harrassment.
"On receipt of a complaint on this matter we will investigate the matter fully," the spokeswoman said.
Glaxo chief executive Jean-Pierre Garnier said: As a Company we have become used to these offensive gestures, but this attack on our shareholders represents a new variation of intimidation and harassment."
Glaxo operates in three locations in Ireland: Rathfarnham in Dublin, Carrigaline in Co Cork and Dungarvan, Co Waterford.