Brian Meehan, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, yesterday brought proceedings in the High Court aimed at lifting a freezing order on his bank accounts in Austria.
Meehan's application comes as the Criminal Assets Bureau is set to apply for a final disposal order in relation to £640,000 (€812,632) in a number of bank accounts in Vienna that have been frozen since 1997.
The Irish freezing order relates to three accounts held by Brian Meehan; three accounts held by his father Kevin Meehan in Creditanstalt Bank, Schottengasse branch, Vienna; and an account in the Isle of Man in Kevin Meehan's name.
Meehan's senior counsel, Paul Burns, said that an Austrian court had deemed the money in the accounts subject to forfeiture under the Austrian penal code.
Counsel submitted to the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, yesterday that when the High Court made the freezing order in 1997, it had no jurisdiction to make such an order in respect of assets outside the jurisdiction.
An order now for the transfer of the money in the bank accounts for disposal here, he said, would be contrary to the Austrian court order.
Meehan's lawyers also claim that when the Irish freezing order was made, it was interlocutory and not final.
Mr Justice Finnegan reserved his judgment.