The trial of Maze prison escapee Brendan McFarlane over the kidnap of supermarket boss Don Tidey 25 years ago is expected to open in Dublin today.
The former IRA prisoner lost a legal challenge in March to stop the case going through the courts claiming delays by the state in bringing the prosecution.
The trial will be held in the Special Criminal Court.
"Bik" McFarlane, from Jamaica Street, west Belfast, was charged in January 1998 with falsely imprisoning Mr Tidey at Derrada Wood, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, in November and December 1983.
He was also charged with possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
He had been in prison at the Maze since 1975 for his part in the IRA bombing of a bar on the Shankill Road in which five people were killed.
McFarlane was the head of the Provisional IRA prisoners at the Maze and escaped in the mass breakout by 38 inmates from the jail in September 1983.
He was later arrested in Amsterdam in early 1986, extradited to Northern Ireland and released on parole from the Maze in 1997.
McFarlane was arrested by gardaí outside Dundalk in January, 1998.
PA