Two of the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe have lost their High Court bid for early release under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Justice Daniel Herbert said he believed it was "wholly legitimate" for the Minister for Justice and the Government of Ireland to require that the prisoners should serve the sentences imposed on them as punishment for "the unique and shocking nature of the crime".
He also considered that it was a legitimate aim of the Minister for Justice and the Government of Ireland to wish to ensure that the peace process in Northern Ireland and full implementation of the Belfast Agreement "should not be jeopardised by a widespread loss of public confidence with possibly irreparable damage to the critical and extremely sensitive ongoing negotiations between the two governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland which would probably follow from the early release of the prisoners convicted of the unlawful killing of Detective Garda McCabe in the unique circumstances surrounding that crime".
Pearse McCauley (40), originally from Strabane, Co Tyrone, and Jeremiah Sheehy (45), from Limerick, were jailed for 14 years and 12 years respectively in early 1999 after pleading guilty at the non-jury Special Criminal Court to the manslaughter of Det Garda McCabe during an attempted robbery outside Adare post office, Co Limerick, in June 1996.
McCauley is due for release, with remission, on August 5th, 2009, and Sheehy is due for release, with remission, on February 4th, 2008.
The appeal court rejected arguments by McCauley and Sheehy that they should be released because they were "qualifying prisoners" under the terms of the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
The judge ruled that there was "no unjustifiable discrimination" between the two men and the 57 other prisoners who have been freed under the agreement.
The two men had claimed that the failure to specify them as qualifying prisoners for early release breached their rights under the Constitution, the Belfast Agreement and the European Convention on Human Rights, and unjustly discriminated against them.
They claimed the failure to release them involved the application of a "consistent Government policy" that the prisoner release scheme would not apply to any person involved in the incident.
Dismissing their claims in his 64-page reserved judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Herbert said it made no difference whether the offence took place before or after the Belfast Agreement.
The importance lay in the fact that those tried and convicted of such terrible crimes before the conclusion of the Belfast Agreement had all served long terms of imprisonment before being released, while the persons convicted of the unlawful killing of Det Garda McCabe were seeking to be considered for almost immediate release by invoking the provisions of the Criminal Justice Release of Prisoners Act, 1998.
He was satisfied this factor placed those persons convicted of the unlawful killing of Det Garda McCabe in "an altogether different category" to those convicted of the unlawful killing of members of An Garda Síochána in connection with the Troubles in Northern Ireland and who had been released from prison.
The judge ruled that the decision of the Minister for Justice not to specify the men as "qualifying prisoners" did not amount to unjust discrimination and did not infringe their constitutional rights.