Kinahan's latest statement to @talkSPORT takes aim at the Special Criminal Court. Many people have reasonable issues with the SCC but his criticism is misleading in a few ways. First, while the SCC has made several references to the Kinahan organised crime group as being 1/

involved in drug trafficking and murders, it was the High Court that specifically named Daniel Kinahan and his brother Christy Jnr as being responsible for the day-to-day running of the gang. While the non-jury SCC has been widely criticised, the Irish High Court has not. 2/

Kinahan also says the SCC accepts the word of police officers without question. It is true the court *can* accept the "belief evidence" of a chief-superintendent that someone is a member of a criminal gang. But it does not convict on this evidence alone. 3/

In practice, there has to be corroborating evidence to convict of gang membership. In the cases involving Kinahan gang members there was ample other evidence linking their crimes to the gang. It was never really in doubt 4/

Lastly (and this is slightly besides the point), for all its flaws, I'd say Kinahan would be more likely to get a fair trial in the Special than in a jury court given his reputation in Ireland. 5/

As another aside, really not sure about TalkSport's decision to publish the entire self-serving statement without any context or fact check. 6/