The Irish Government continues to doubt the convictions of three men jailed for helping to murder two British army corporals during an IRA funeral in 1988, a Californian deportation trial has heard.
The Irish honorary consul in Los Angeles, Mr Finbarr Hill, told the hearing that the Irish Government had informed the British government of its concerns about the conviction of Seán Ó Ceallaigh, who is appealing a US government decision to deport him back to the UK.
A Northern Ireland police officer has flown to California to assist the US government case, and will show the court British army footage of the two corporals being dragged from their cars, beaten and then later shot at waste ground in west Belfast.
The court has already watched BBC and RTÉ current affairs programmes which claimed that the convictions had been a miscarriage of justice.
Ó Ceallaigh is fighting his deportation from California where he worked as a barman in a coastal resort south of Los Angeles since being freed under the Belfast Agreement.
He was arrested in February after returning from a family visit to Belfast.
The Department of Homeland Security has said that Ó Ceallaigh has committed a crime of "moral turpitude" and should be sent back to Northern Ireland.
Ó Ceallaigh was jailed for life for assisting in the murder of Corporals David Howes and Derek Wood, who were dragged from their cars, beaten and shot dead by the IRA at the funeral of IRA man Kevin Brady in Andersonstown in March 1988.
Ó Ceallaigh's lawyer, Mr Jim Byrne, claimed in court that his client is innocent and has been granted an appeal to show that the conviction was a political decision on the part of the British government.
The case is essentially a retrial of the conviction.
The trial is expected to continue until tomorrow.