Five appear before judge in Offaly after Dublin arrests

THREE women and two men appeared before Tullamore District Court this morning (Wednesday, June 14) after being arrested in Dublin yesterday.

Marek Puska (34), Lubomir Puska (35) and Lucia Istokova (34), whose addresses cannot be published by order of the court, are accused of failing to disclose information to gardai on a date unknown between two dates last year.

Jozefina Grundzova (33) and Viera Gazoiva (38) are both accused of impeding the apprehension or prosecution of a person.

Judge Michelle Finan also made an order prohibiting the publication of their addresses.

Detective Garda Colin O'Leary told the court that when Lubomir Puska was arrested and charged he replied after caution: “I understand what you said and I thank you.”

Marek Puska was arrested by Detective Sergeant Caroline Lyng and she said his reply after caution was: “It is out of my hands to say anything about that.”

The other gardai who gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution were Detective Garda Shane Jennings, Detective Garda Alan Burke and Detective Garda David Harney.

Judge Finan was told the DPP had directed all five be tried by indictment and she remanded them on bail to appear in court again for service of books of evidence on July 26 next.

A Slovakian language interpreter was in court to assist the accused people.

Bail was agreed on condition they all surrender their passports or travel documents but the court was told by Sergeant James O'Sullivan that Jozefina Grundzova and Marek Puska said they had lost theirs.

Judge Finan ordered that the travel documents be surrendered by both those defendants within 72 hours and if that condition of the bail was breached, it would be open to the prosecution to apply for a revocation of bail.