The High Court has cleared the way for the retrial of a Co Louth man on a conspiracy charge connected to the 1998 Real IRA bombing in Omagh in which 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, died.
The retrial had been set for January last but was adjourned pending Colm Murphy's judicial review challenge aimed at preventing it from going ahead.
Mr Murphy (53), a building contractor and publican who is a native of Co Armagh but with an address at Jordan's Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth, had claimed the "systemic delay" in prosecuting him had prejudiced his right to a fair and speedy trial.
That delay, it was argued, included an inexcusable three-year delay by the DPP in pressing perjury charges against two gardaí who gave evidence at his first trial which opened in 2001. Such a lapse, it was argued, breached Mr Murphy's rights under the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Mr Murphy also argued that his capacity to defend himself was compromised due to short-term memory loss he sustained as a result of head injuries following a hit-and-run incident during the late 1980s. He claimed that as a result of this memory malfunction he could not challenge details of Garda inverviews.
In a reserved judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill refused Mr Murphy's application to halt the trial. While there had been delay in the case, the judge said he was satisfied this had not breached Murphy's rights either under the Constitution or European Convention on Human Rights.
While there was delay in bringing the proceedings on behalf of the DPP or the State against Mr Murphy, the prosecution was a difficult one and a considerable volume of material had to be prepared and furnished to the applicant, the judge said.
The judge also held that Murphy's memory problems had not affected his ability to recall relevant events, in particular his participation in interviews with gardaí, and to instruct his legal team accordingly.
The judge concluded "there was nothing" in the medical evidence before the court "that gave rise to a concern that Mr Murphy's memory impairment is such that he cannot now have a fair trial". He also rejected arguments that the prosecution should be prohibited because of the levels of stress and anxiety that Mr Murphy suffers from.
Mr Murphy was freed on bail in 2005 after the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed his conviction and 14-year sentence for a conspiracy offence connected with the 1998 Omagh bombing.
The appeal court overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial after finding that the court of trial - the non-jury Special Criminal Court - had failed to give proper regard to altered Garda interview notes. It found there had been "an invasion of the presumption of innocence" in the Special Criminal Court judgment on Mr Murphy.
During his 25-day trial in 2001 and 2002, Mr Murphy had pleaded not guilty to conspiring in Dundalk with another person not before the court to cause an explosion in the State or elsewhere between August 13th and 16th, 1998.