3.— (1) Assistance shall be refused—

(a) if the Minister considers that providing assistance would be likely to prejudice the sovereignty, security or other essential interests of the State or would be contrary to public policy (ordre public),

(b) if there are reasonable grounds for believing—

(i) that the request concerned was made for the purpose of prosecuting or punishing a person on account of his or her sex, race, religion, ethnic origin, nationality, language, political opinion or sexual orientation,

(ii) that providing assistance—

(I) may prejudice a person’s position for any of those reasons, or

(II) may result in the person being subjected to torture or to any other contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights,

(c) if the request is not in accordance with the relevant international instrument, or

(d) if, and for as long as, the provision of assistance would prejudice a criminal investigation, or criminal proceedings, in the State,

and may be refused on any other ground of refusal of assistance specified in the relevant international instrument.

(2) In this section, “torture” has the meaning given to it by the Criminal Justice (United Nations Convention against Torture) Act 2000.