Defence Act 1954

Liability to military law in respect of status.

120

120.(1) Where an offence against military law has been committed by any person while subject to military law, such person may, subject to subsection (2) of this section, be taken into and kept in service custody and tried and punished for such offence, although he or the unit to which he belongs has ceased to be subject to military law, in like manner as he might have been taken into and kept in service custody, tried or punished, if he or such unit had continued to be so subject.

F85[(2) Where

(a) an offence (other than that of mutiny, desertion, fraudulent enlistment or a civil offence committed by a person subject to military law while he was on active service outside the State or while he was despatched for service outside the State for any purpose specified in section 3 of the Defence (Amendment) Act 2006) against military law triable by court-martial under this Act has been committed by any person while subject to military law, and

(b) such person has since commission of the offence ceased to be subject to military law,

that person may not be tried for the offence unless he is charged with the offence in accordance with this Act within six months beginning on the date on which he ceased to be so subject, but nothing in this subsection shall be construed as affecting the jurisdiction of a civil court where the offence is triable by that court as well as by court-martial.]

F86[(3) Where a person subject to military law is sentenced by a court-martial to a term of imprisonment or detention and is in service custody, this Act shall apply to the person during the term of that sentence, notwithstanding that the person is discharged or dismissed from the Defence Forces or has otherwise ceased to be subject to military law, and the person may be kept, removed, imprisoned, made to undergo detention and punished accordingly as if the person continued to be subject to military law.]

Annotations

Amendments:

F85

Substituted (21.04.2007) by Defence (Amendment) Act 2007 (24/2007), s. 12, commenced on enactment as per s. 1(3).

F86

Substituted (21.04.2007) by Defence (Amendment) Act 2007 (24/2007), s. 12, commenced on enactment as per s. 1(3).

Editorial Notes:

E20

Previous affecting provision: subs. (3) amended by deletion of “penal servitude” (22.07.1997) by Criminal Law Act 1997 (14/1997), s. 14 and sch. 2, para. 4, commenced as per s. 1; subs. (3) substituted as per F-note above.