Two Irish accused of international espionage among foreign arrests
Immigration offences top list of Foreign Affairs calls
TWO accusations of international espionage were among the concerns with which 1,332 Irish people sought urgent help from the Department of Foreign Affairs while abroad.
However, immigration, assault and driving offences, followed by drunk and disorderly and domestic violence, top the league of offences for which Irish people are arrested abroad, figures seen by the Irish Mail on Sunday show.
While the figures do not identify the accused, Irish passport holder Paul Whelan, 48, was arrested for spying and detained in Russia this year.
Mr Whelan, who holds citizenship in Ireland, the US, the UK and Canada, was held on a charge of espionage after Russian officials said he was caught red-handed with state secrets.
Mr Whelan claims evidence was planted, and sought consular assistance from Ireland.
In September, he lost an appeal to the charge in Moscow and called on Ireland, as well as the other countries he holds a passport in, for further help, but he remains in prison.
Another Irish passport holder accused of spying since 2016 faced what a source told the MoS was a ‘dubious’ charge of espionage in an African country.
An Irish Government insider confirmed to the MoS that the person who sought consular assistance in 2017 while being charged with the highly unusual crime of spying was released ‘straight away’ and there has been ‘no conviction’ to date. However, the matter was still described as ongoing.
The figures requested under the Freedom of Information Act also show some 216 Irish people were sent to prison abroad in the same five years.
The top charges Irish people faced overseas were for immigration offences (179) which mainly concerns people outstaying their visas, followed by assault (165), driving offences (160), drunken disorderly (150), and domestic violence (137). Among other offences, there have been 11 cases of Irish people being accused of homicide, 50 cases of alleged fraud, 63 for theft, 55 of sexual assault, five cases of alleged kidnapping, four cases of alleged stalking and three cases of alleged arson.
Spain has consistently topped the list of countries where Irish people are arrested over the last four years, followed by Australia, the US and the UK.
According to a Government official, these figures are not the ‘full scale’ of alleged Irish crimes abroad. He said: ‘These are people who have been charged who have requested our assistance, there could be many people out there who aren’t aware of the help we can offer or don’t wish to disclose what’s happening to them.’
In terms of the elevated rates of arrests in Spain over the years, the official said: ‘Spain is above and beyond the busiest embassy for consular work in terms of arrests and imprisonment – just because so many Irish people travel there and there are so many expats living there on Irish passports,’ he said.
The charges faced tend to be minor in these cases.
The figures show that requests for consular assistance are increasing in more exotic locations.
Japan, the home of the Rugby World Cup this year, saw 10 Irish people arrested so far in 2019 when only eight requests for assistance were lodged with the Department in the previous two years combined. The likes of arrests in the United Arab Emirates, Thailand and Vietnam have also increased.
The figures also show the majority of crimes were allegedly carried out by Irish men, with 1,188 men accused of crimes since 2016 in comparison to 142 Irish women.
The official said: ‘Men are more likely to get into trouble than women. Maybe women are less likely to get caught but it’s overwhelmingly clear that men aren’t criminal masterminds.’