A man charged with an alleged terrorist plot to destroy a Galway mosque has claimed he cannot get a fair trial due to the wording of the Explosives Act.
The High Court has reserved its judgment in the case, which was brought by 39-year-old Karolis Peckauskas of Newfoundwell Road, Drogheda, Co Louth.
Him and three other men are to stand trial at the non-jury Special Criminal Court charged in connection with the plot to carry out a terrorist attack.
Peckauskas is charged with possession of an explosive substance – four threaded pipe end caps and six litres of hydrogen peroxide – under such circumstances as to give rise to a reasonable suspicion that he did not have it in his possession for a lawful object at O’Moore Place, Portlaoise, Co Laois on November 4th last year.
Papers lodged by Peskaukas’s legal team claim that the wording of section 4 of the Explosives Act places an “impermissible burden” on the applicant.
The Act states that if a person makes or knowingly possesses an explosive substance, he is guilty of an offence “unless he can show that he made it or had it in his possession or under his control for a lawful object”.
Leave for the judicial review was granted to barrister Niall Storan, led by Kathleen Leader, instructed by Barry Fitzgerald Solicitors, for Peckauskas, on January 26th, in an ex parte motion – where only one side is represented in the court.
On Wednesday, Judge David Keane reserved judgment in the matter.
