A SOLICITOR for Gerry Adams last night defended a decision to grant legal aid to the Sinn Féin politician following a court ruling related to his Maze escape bids.
Seamus Collins said Mr Adams will receive legal aid because of the "merits of his case".
It comes after Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie called for an investigation into how legal aid is allocated in Northern Ireland after a Freedom of Information request revealed Mr Adams will receive it for his Supreme Court case.
In February 2018 the Court of Appeal rejected Mr Adams’s claim that his convictions for attempting to escape from the Maze Prison in the 1970s, where he was interned without trial, were unlawful.
The former Sinn Féin president appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which earlier this year quashed the convictions because his detention was not "personally considered" by a senior British government minister, as was legally required.
The Supreme Court said his convictions were quashed because his original detention during internment was unlawful.
It has now emerged the decision to grant Mr Adams' legal aid for his Supreme Court challenge was made last week. The amount he will receive will be made following an assessment by a legal officer of the Supreme Court.
It is thought it could take months before the costs are decided.
But Mr Beattie said "serious questions need to be asked how the qualifying criteria are met".
"I received an update to a Freedom of Information request response about how much Gerry Adams received in legal aid," he said.
"In the initial response the Legal Services Agency (LSA) NI stated that Gerry Adams had received just over £106,000 of legal aid for the case put before the Court of Appeal, and that the case brought before the Supreme Court would not be met through legal aid.
"Now, in a complete reversal of the response, the LSA have stated to me that Mr Adams will have his Supreme Court costs met from the legal aid bill and that as yet that cost is 'unknown'.
"Nobody is denying anyone who is entitled to legal aid from receiving legal aid, but having experience of constituents including domestic abuse victims, those in family court proceedings and victims of crime denied legal aid - it is very difficult to understand how anyone with Mr Adams' means could qualify.
"Again, that is not to say he does not, but it is to say there needs to be a better understanding of the legal aid system to ensure it supports those it is actually intended to support."
But Mr Collins defended the decision.
"The decision to award Gerry Adams legal aid did not involve an assessment of his financial means," he said.
"The decision was made by the court itself and was primarily based on the merits of his case, which involved a point of law of general public importance."
