SPANISH OFFICIALS HAVE said that an ongoing examination of a file by the country’s public prosecutions office will not halt Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch from standing in the upcoming Dublin central by-election. 

Hutch (62) is currently on bail in connection with a money laundering allegation before a court in Arrecife, Lanzarote.

There have been reports that he intends to stand in the by-election in Dublin Central after the resignation of Paschal Donohoe. 

Hutch and nine others are accused by Spanish authorities of belonging to a ‘criminal money-laundering gang’.

Any trial, if it ends up going ahead, would be unlikely to take place before the by-election, next year.

In a statement this morning from the courts service in Lanzarote, prosecutors said that the cases against the well known north inner city Dublin resident had been stalled. 

It said that Hutch and other suspects had been held in pretrial detention between October 25 and November 4, but was subsequently set free on bail.

The spokesman said that essentially the case had been referred to the Public Prosecutor’s Office who would consider if it was worth going forward with the case against Hutch. The statement said that a report had been sought “on whether or not to proceed to trial and, if so, for the issuance of provisional charges”.

Spanish officials are not permitted to identify any of the people involved in Spanish prosecutions. The judge in Spain also refused to release details of the case. 

However, The Journal, speaking to Irish based sources, has established that the statement refers to Gerry Hutch.

“Answering questions from Irish and British journalists in recent weeks, the fact that the main suspect has announced or confirmed his candidacy for election in his country does not affect the criminal proceedings in any way,” the statement said. 

Ahead of last year’s general election, in which Hutch unsuccessfully sought a seat in the Dublin Central constituency, he had to pay a €100,000 bail bond before he was allowed out of prison on November 4 2024.

The Irishman was one of nine people arrested during raids by police in Lanzarote and mainland Spain.

One of the properties searched was Hutch’s €450,000 penthouse in the popular Costa del Sol holiday resort of Fuengirola, where the Irishman was spotted the same day he was released after flying to Malaga from his Canaries’ home.

A judge remanded Hutch and an alleged right-hand man to prison following behind-closed-doors court appearances, but released the other seven suspects on bail.