Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act, 1998

Rearrest under section 30 of Act of 1939.

11.— The following section is hereby inserted after section 30 of the Act of 1939:

“30A. (1) Where a person arrested on suspicion of having committed an offence is detained pursuant to section 30 of this Act and is released without any charge having been made against him he shall not—

(a) be arrested again for the same offence, or

(b) be arrested for any other offence of which, at the time of the first arrest, the member of the Garda Síochána by whom he was arrested, suspected, or ought reasonably to have suspected, him of having committed,

except under the authority of a warrant issued by a judge of the District Court who is satisfied on information supplied on oath by an officer of the Garda Síochána not below the rank of superintendent that further information has come to the knowledge of the Garda Síochána since the person's release as to his suspected participation in the offence for which his arrest is sought.

(2) Section 30 of this Act, and, in particular, any powers conferred thereby, shall apply to or in respect of a person arrested in connection with an offence to which that section relates under a warrant issued pursuant to subsection (1) of this section as it applies to or in respect of a person to whom that section applies, with the following and any other necessary modifications:

(a) the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (3):

‘(3) Whenever a person is arrested under a warrant issued pursuant to section 30A(1) of this Act, he may be removed to and detained in custody in a Garda Síochána station, a prison or some other convenient place for a period of 24 hours from the time of his arrest.’,

(b) the deletion of subsections (4), (4A) and (4B), and

(c) the addition of the following at the end of subsection (4C):

‘or, in case the detention follows an arrest under a warrant issued pursuant to section 30A of this Act, by subsection (3) of this section as substituted by the said section 30A.’.

(3) Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, a person to whom that subsection relates may be arrested for any offence for the purpose of charging him with that offence forthwith.”.