Former Anglo Irish Bank Chairman Sean Fitzpatrick has put forward an application to stop his criminal trial from going ahead in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in October.
The application process began today in the High Courts in Dublin.
Bernard Condon S.C. for Mr. Fitzpatrick told Mr. Justice Michael Moriarty that he is seeking an injunction to protect his clients rights to a fair trial.
Fitzpatrick is currently facing 27 charges including making misleading, false and deceptive statements to auditors and of furnishing false information between 2002 and 2007.
Despite this he has pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Fitzpatricks legal team are insistent that their client can no longer get a fair trial due to the negative publicity he received in the wake of the trials and subsequent imprisonement of Tiarnan O’Mahoney, Bernard Daly and Aoife Maguire, all former Anglo Officials.
Judge Nolan rejected the application and insisted that the trial will go ahead on October 5th.
Mr. Condon is currently seeking a permanent injunction against the case to prevent a criminal trial from ever taking place, or a limited injunction of 12 months.
He stated that “I’m here to stop the trial from ever proceeding and if I don’t succeed in that, I am here to prevent the trial from going ahead until at least October 2016”.
Attempts were also made by Paul O’Higgins to prevent the media from reporting on the details of today’s application. His proposal will be discussed on Saturday, however the details of what was discussed today can be reported until tomorrow.