The Court of Criminal Appeal has reserved judgment on an appeal by two Dublin Sinn Féin members against their convictions for IRA membership.
Niall Binead (36), Faughart Road, Crumlin, and Kenneth Donohoe (27), Sundale Avenue, Mountain View, Tallaght, were each jailed for four years by the non-jury Special Criminal Court in 2004 after they were convicted of membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA on October 10th, 2002.
During their trial the court heard that gardaí found a list of TDs, including three former justice ministers, at Binead's home.
Binead is a former secretary of a south Dublin Sinn Féin cumann and was a close associate of Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South Central Aengus Ó Snodaigh.
At the SCC, Mr Justice Diarmuid O'Donovan said the two men had not been convicted solely on the word of a Garda Chief Supt. That belief was taken into account along with their failure to answer material questions when interviewed by gardaí about documents found at the homes of the two men and in the context of suspicious activity at Corke Abbey, Bray, Co Wicklow, on October 10th, 2002.
The trial was told the men were arrested after gardaí arrested five other men following suspicious activity around three vehicles at Corke Abbey on the same date.
Inside a transit van, gardaí found four men, a sledgehammer, two pickaxe handles, eight bags of ties, radios, a balaclava, rubber gloves and a fluorescent jacket labelled "Garda", the court heard.
In a Nissan car with false number plates they found a blue flashing beacon, a Long Kesh baseball cap, a stun gun, a canister of CS gas and a roll of black tape. Binead's thumbprint was found on the roll of black tape in the Nissan and another car involved in the incident at Bray belonged to a woman who was Donohoe's partner.
During the trial, the three judges at the SCC examined secret Garda files on the two accused, which were not seen by the prosecution or defence legal teams.