Court of Appeal dismisses appeal against conviction for membership of an unlawful organisation, on the grounds that: (a) the Special Criminal Court took scrupulous care to exclude from its deliberation any issues or matters which arose prior to a certain date in order to ensure that there was no duplication or double counting of the material relied upon by the chief superintendent underpinning his opinion and the evidence independent of that belief; (b) no consideration of objective bias properly arose where there was no statutory provision that the senior officer considering material relating to an individual cannot be involved in any other aspect of the investigation; (c) the Special Criminal Court gave appropriate weight to the belief evidence of the chief superintendent; and (d) the limited capacity of the appellant to cross-examine was taken into account in the weighting of the belief evidence.
Appeal against conviction for membership of an unlawful organisation contrary to s. 21 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939 - primary evidence was the belief evidence of chief superintendent, who claimed privilege in respect of information relating to and connected with his belief evidence on the grounds of state security, protection of life and property and ongoing operations - whether trial court erred in admitting the belief evidence - whether there was double counting in the manner in which the chief superintendent formed his belief - whether there would be a reasonable apprehension of objective bias on the part of the chief superintendent - whether too much weight was attached to the belief evidence - whether the broad nature of the privilege asserted prevented meaningful cross-examination.