{"id":541558,"date":"2026-06-18T12:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/541558\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T12:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:08:18","slug":"lithuanian-man-allegedly-involved-in-galway-mosque-plot-claims-he-cannot-get-a-fair-trial-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/541558\/","title":{"rendered":"Lithuanian man allegedly involved in Galway mosque plot claims he cannot get a fair trial \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man charged with an alleged terrorist plot to destroy a Galway<\/a> mosque has claimed he cannot get a fair trial due to the wording of the Explosives Act. <\/p>\n

He argues the Act places the burden on him to prove he is not morally culpable.<\/p>\n

The High Court<\/a> has reserved its judgment in the case, which was brought by 39-year-old Karolis Peckauskas of Newfoundwell Road, Drogheda, Co Louth. <\/p>\n

Peckauskas is charged with possession of an explosive substance \u2013 four threaded pipe end caps and six litres of hydrogen peroxide \u2013 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\u2019Moore Place, Portlaoise, Co Laois on November 4th last year.<\/p>\n

Peckauskas has not entered a plea in relation to the charge and a stay has been imposed on his prosecution until the resolution of his High Court challenge.<\/p>\n

Papers lodged by Peskaukas\u2019s legal team claim that the wording of section 4 of the Explosives Act places an \u201cimpermissible burden\u201d on the applicant.<\/p>\n

The Act states that if a person makes or knowingly possesses an explosive substance, he is guilty of an offence \u201cunless he can show that he made it or had it in his possession or under his control for a lawful object\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Act\u2019s wording, lawyers for Peckauskas submit, places an \u201cimpermissible burden\u201d on the applicant because it puts an obligation on him to prove he is not morally culpable. They argue this is contrary to article 38.1 of the Constitution and the right to a fair trial under the European Convention on Human Rights.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 where only one side is represented in the court.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Judge David Keane reserved judgment in the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man charged with an alleged terrorist plot to destroy a Galway mosque has claimed he cannot get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,1878,6,10476,19,17,11,12,7253,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-541558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-galway","tag-headlines","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-lithuania","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116771036148486820","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}