Andre Shoukri
Andre Shoukri
AN appeal by leading loyalist Andre Shoukri was halted today after a legal point was raised by his lawyers.
Shoukri (25), from Sunningdale Gardens, Belfast, was jailed for six years last July after being found guilty of possessing a gun and ammunition in suspicious circumstances.
He also got two years concurrent for having the weapon without a firearms certificate.
The alleged UDA Brigadier in north Belfast had his handcuffs removed before the three judges took their seats in the Court of Appeal.
Defence counsel Arthur Harvey, QC, said Shoukri had always maintained that when he was arrested at Rathcoole last September in possession of a gun that he had it solely for his own protection after police told him about death threats.
He said the Act under which Shoukri was found guilty stated that it was an offence to have possession of a firearm in "such circumstances as to give rise to a reasonable suspicion that he did not have the weapon for a lawful object."
While possession was an offence in itself, it was not so if a person could establish that he had a gun for a reasonable object, said Mr Harvey.
He submitted the conviction was perverse because it was incompatible with Article 6 (2) of the European Convention on Human Rights which guaranteed a presumption of innocence.
The onus was on the Crown to prove guilt and not on Shoukri to prove his innocence, he said.
The Lord Chief Justice Sir Robert Carswell, Lord Justice Campbell and Mr Justice Kerr retired for a short period to consider the submission.
When they returned the Lord Chief Justice said the most satisfactory course would be to adjourn the hearing so that the issue of incompatibility could be fully argued.
This will mean serving notice on the Home Office which is expected to lead to the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith becoming involved.