The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Henry Doherty, a prisoner serving a sentence imposed by the Special Criminal Court, over the Minister for Justice's refusal to treat him as a qualifying prisoner for the release arrangements associated with the Multi-Party Agreement.
Doherty, who pleaded guilty to serious offences in 1995, sought declarations that would require the Minister to regard him as a qualifying prisoner under the Criminal Justice (Release of Prisoners) Act 1998 and refer his case to the Release of Prisoners Commission.
In a judgment delivered on February 14, 2001, Mr Justice Murray said the 1998 Act did not itself create a power to release prisoners. Instead, it established a commission to advise the Minister in specified circumstances when an existing statutory power of release was being considered by reference to the prisoner provisions of the Multi-Party Agreement.
The court found that the Minister had neither specified Doherty as a qualifying prisoner nor decided to consider releasing him under those provisions. Those decisions remained matters for the Minister's executive discretion.
Mr Justice Murray rejected the argument that the prisoner provisions reproduced in the schedule to the 1998 Act amounted to an enforceable statutory definition giving Doherty an individual right to qualifying-prisoner status. He said they were included for reference and that the Multi-Party Agreement itself did not confer individual rights enforceable before the courts in this case.
The judgment said courts could intervene where executive release powers were exercised in a capricious, arbitrary or unjust manner, or contrary to governing legislation. No such allegation was made in Doherty's case.
The Supreme Court therefore held that the Minister was entitled to consider matters relevant to his decision not to release Doherty and that the 1998 Act did not restrict that discretion. The appeal was disallowed.