This article is from page 13 of the 2008-07-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
ESSAM Eid was merely a prop in the operation because the State wanted to ‘get’ Sharon Collins, according to lawyers for the Egyptian.
David Sutton, SC, for Essam Eid, said the conspiracy to murder charge was a bridge too far when in reality it was a fraud operation.
“Tt wasn’t “Dial M for murder’. It was ‘Dial M for money’. The State overegged the pudding for Mr Eid, because they wanted to get Ms Col- lins and what patsy are they carrying along? Mr Eid,” he shouted.
“Clearly it was nonsense, because they were trying to get Ms Collins. That’s who they are after. We’re only a prop in this operation,” he added.
He said the case had been “dressed
up to look like the most important case on earth. Yesterday (Thursday), who was brought in to the back of the court? The Howard brothers, here to eyeball you, two live exhibits. .. be- cause no-one was killed here.”
Mr Sutton said the evidence was in- consistent and the State was seeking to rely on an accomplice, Teresa En- gle, who presented “a tissue of lies” to the court.
He said that after she was released from custody at Ennis Garda Station, she “went home on a plane.”
‘Her only purpose for coming back was to give evidence against Mr Eid and Ms Collins. Only for that, we would never have seen this woman again,” he said, in his closing speech to the jury last Friday morning.
“In Las Vegas, Ms Engle comes
to the attention of the law again. In- stead of blagging her way out of it, or scamming her way out of it, she is caught again, using the same website. Another woman was shaken down for money. Who was at it again, but Ms Engle,” he said.
‘That was the reason why we were graced with her presence,” he added.
He said she produced “one of the most self-serving and conniving pieces of perjury I’ve heard in an Irish court. A liar and conniver here to serve her own interests, when she was caught like a rat in a trap,” he SrnCee
“She sat here giving evidence like the stone face of a liar. That is what the State was relying on to tie togeth- er their case,” he added.
He said that in her closing speech,
Ms Ni Raifeartaigh claimed there was nobody else apart from Sha- ron Collins who could have sent the emails, “but the State has never said there was anybody other than Tony Luciano who sent those messages.”
He said in the US, Teresa Engle was involved in the same thing, but there were no conspiracy to murder charges there. “Maybe the FBI take a more hard-nosed approach and they don’t get carried away,” he said.
“The evidence produced by the State is one only that points to fraud. I say it was a fraud operation from Start to finish,’ he said.
Referring to the ricin element of the case, he said, “There is no evidence OVME-TON Arc DeOOLUDel MO) MNMLesUOMMst-nmeCOltOCOM @ND anybody and if there was, I’m sure we’d hear all about that.”
He said that gardai “know in their heart of hearts that what was go- ing on here was a shakedown. They know that the conspiracy to murder charge is a bridge too far.”
He said that Ms Engle claimed the intention was murder, but she hadn’t a notion as to how that was going to happen. “Was she going to follow the Howard brothers around Kilkee with a bottle in the hope that they would get thirsty? It’s at that ridiculous lev- el,” he said.
“You have to be satisfied Mr Eid was there at all and that he was Tony Luciano. I say that evidence is not there and it cannot be welded togeth- er by self-serving perjury,’ he said.
He said the hitman website was a “clownish operation run by clowns in the hope of hooking fools.”