Geneva Conventions Act, 1962

Appeals by protected prisoners of war and internees convicted of offences under section 3.

8.—(1) Where a protected prisoner of war or a protected internee has been sentenced by the Central Criminal Court to death or to penal servitude or to imprisonment for an offence under section 3 of this Act, the time within which he must give notice of appeal, or notice of his application for leave to appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal shall, notwithstanding anything in any other enactment or in any rules of court relating to such appeals, be the period from the date of his conviction or, in the case of an appeal against sentence, of his sentence to the expiration of ten days after the date on which he receives a notice given—

(a) in the case of a protected prisoner of war, by an officer of the Defence Forces; or

(b) in the case of a protected internee, by or on behalf of the governor or other person in charge of the prison or place in which he is confined,

that the protecting power has been notified of his conviction and sentence.

(2) Where after an appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal has been determined the sentence on a protected prisoner of war or a protected internee remains a sentence of death, or remains or has become a sentence of penal servitude or of imprisonment, an application to the Attorney General for a certificate authorising an appeal to the Supreme Court in respect of the conviction or sentence as confirmed or varied upon the previous appeal may be made at any time within the period from the date on which the decision by the Court of Criminal Appeal was given until seven days after the date on which the convicted person receives a notice by a person referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) (as the case may require) of subsection (1) of this section that the protecting power has been notified of the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal.

(3) An order of the court relating to the restitution of property or the payment of compensation to an aggrieved person on any such conviction as aforesaid shall not take effect, and a provision of any enactment relating to the revesting of property on a conviction shall not apply in relation to the conviction while an appeal by the convicted person is pending in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section.

(4) This section does not apply in relation to an appeal against a conviction or sentence by the Central Criminal Court, or against a decision on appeal of the Court of Criminal Appeal, if, at the time of that conviction or sentence, or of that decision, as the case may be, there is no protecting power.