“Obviously the objective of the Irish Government and my objective is to get the person extradited so that they can face charges here – nobody’s been convicted of anything yet”
Paul Healy and Michael O’Toole
10:30, 22 Apr 2026Updated 10:32, 22 Apr 2026
Daniel Kinahan
The government doesn’t know yet whether Daniel Kinahan intends to fight his extradition, the Minister for Justice has said.
Asked about the arrest of Kinahan (48) in Dubai last Friday, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan told of his phone call with his counterpart in the United Arab Emirates after the dramatic operation. “There’s a history to this and there’s a history to the hard work that’s been done by members of An Garda Siochana liaising with their counterpart in the UAE, the agreement that was entered into by the Irish Government and the UAE and it has all come together I suppose and culminated with the arrest of a suspect last Friday,” he said.
“Obviously the objective of the Irish Government and my objective is to get the person extradited so that they can face charges here. Nobody’s been convicted of anything yet.
“The reason we have an extradition request in is so that a person can be brought back to Ireland to face very serious charges. Last Friday as well I had a telephone conversation with the Minister for Justice of the UAE.
“I thanked him for the excellent work that they have done. I think it’s a sign of the ongoing cooperation that exists between Ireland and the UAE,” he added.
The Minister, who was speaking to the media at the annual conference of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) in Westport, Co Mayo, was also asked about whether Ireland has a right to be present for the mobster’s judicial proceedings in Dubai. He said: “Obviously we don’t know as of yet whether or not the extradition will be contested or not.
“If he decides to contest it there will be a hearing out there and I suppose as the entity that has requested it, I would have thought Ireland would be heard out there.”
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