The High Court ordered Brendan Emmet Casey’s surrender to Northern Ireland for prosecution on five of six alleged offences in a Trade and Cooperation Agreement warrant. It ruled that surrender was barred on the allegation that he attended a place used for terrorist training, because Irish law did not provide a corresponding offence on the facts described.
The warrant, issued by a Belfast judicial authority on 2 July 2021, alleged offences relating to membership of a proscribed organisation, conspiracies to possess explosives and firearms, preparatory conduct, attendance at a terrorist training location, and receipt of explosives training. The allegations were not findings that Casey committed the offences.
The court considered whether the fifth allegation—attendance at a place where terrorist training was provided, with knowledge or reason to understand its purpose—corresponded to an offence under Irish law. The State argued that it corresponded to unauthorised military exercises under section 15 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939. The judge concluded that section 15 required participation in an assembly practising or meeting to train, and did not cover someone who remained present while training occurred without taking part. The court also found that the conduct alleged was not within the Trade and Cooperation Agreement’s listed terrorism categories that could permit surrender without proof of dual criminality. Casey could not be surrendered on that offence.
For the sixth allegation, the warrant said Casey received instruction in making or using explosives for terrorist purposes. The court rejected the argument that this had no Irish-law equivalent. It held that section 12(1) of the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act 1998, which criminalises instructing or training another person or receiving such instruction or training in making or using firearms or explosives, corresponded to the alleged conduct. The additional allegation of a terrorist purpose did not defeat correspondence.
The court said other statutory grounds barring surrender did not arise and that the offences met the minimum gravity threshold. After the respondent withdrew earlier objections concerning proportionality and the capacity to bind Ireland to the agreement, he formally consented to surrender on 25 January 2022. The court then made an order under section 15(1) of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 for his surrender to the Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The order was for prosecution; the judgment did not determine his guilt.