Anti-vaccine extremist Antonio Mureddu was jailed in the North last week for seven nights on motoring offences, but was released three days later after he paid a £550 (€650) fine.
Mureddu (45) made headlines last February when he was arrested in Donegal and questioned about his encouraging 67-year-old Covid-sceptic patient Joe McCarron to leave hospital the previous September, when he was gravely ill.
Mr McCarron returned to Letterkenny University Hospital two days later, but subsequently died.
Gardaí later sent a file to the DPP in relation to the Italian’s role in that incident, but the state prosecutor advised in May that no criminal charges be pursued.
Mureddu is closely associated with the Ballybofey-based covid conspiracy group, Common Law Centre.
Last Monday, the Italian immigrant, with an address at Main Street, Galway, appeared at Derry Magistrates Court charged with driving with no insurance on Victoria Road, outside Derry, last April 21.
He was also charged with having an incorrect form of registration on the same date, according to today’s Sunday Independent.
Mureddu, who represented himself, told district judge Barney McElholm he was “going to the court of common law”.
He repeatedly interrupted the judge, who told him that such a court “doesn’t exist — it is in your mind”. He was also warned to stop shouting.
Judge McElholm eventually said the defendant had not challenged the statements, and so was convicted.
He added that not only was the registration incorrect, it was also a fake registration.
He fined Mureddu £550, and as his address was outside of the jurisdiction, he imposed an immediate warrant — meaning the penalty had to be paid immediately or Mureddu would face seven days in custody. He was then jailed.
However, the court service in Northern Ireland confirmed when contacted that after three days in prison, “the fine was paid”, meaning he was released last Thursday.
Mureddu rose to public prominence last year. In a video that later went viral, he is seen encouraging Mr McCarron to leave hospital, despite a doctor saying he could die.
Among the issues examined by gardaí in their investigation was whether the patient was forced or coerced to leave hospital by Mureddu.
A criminal charge of endangerment was also considered.
Charges of trespass and whether hospital staff were threatened were also looked at.
Read the full report on www.independent.ie
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