Sixty-five-year-old Reverend George Exoo avoided extradition to Ireland last week when a West Virginia judge ruled that assisting suicide is not a crime in that state or in 24 others in the US. It is a crime in Ireland, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Exoo's media spokesman, Richard Cote, told the Sunday Tribune that the reverend's eventual goal was to establish a hospice where the seriously ill could end their own lives with the support of his church, the Compassionate Chaplaincy. This hospice will be set up in a state where assisted suicide is legal. The spokesman added that Exoo could never set foot in Ireland as there is a warrant out for his arrest, but added that he would "not discriminate" against any seriously ill Irish people who wished to travel to his right-to-die hospice in the future. "He doesn't want to establish a 'suicide tourism' type of place, but it is his goal to set up a hospice where people can die with support from his church, " Cote explained.

Exoo travelled to Dublin five years ago to help Rosemary Toole-Gilhooley (49) take her own life in an apartment in Dublin. She died after taking pills and inhaling helium in 2002. Exoo has insisted that Toole-Gilhooley had made detailed preparations for her death and that his role was simply to pray and hold her hand while she took her life. He claims that she was suffering from Cushing's syndrome and not depression alone. "Sitting with people and praying as they die is not a crime, as I see it. I doubt most Irish people would disagree with it. If sitting with the dying and holding their hand and supporting them is a crime, then most priests and reverends are sinners and criminals, " Exoo told the Sunday Tribune at the weekend.

Exoo spent four months in prison in West Virginia in relation to an Irish extradition warrant before the charge was dismissed last week. He was physically abused by some prisoners on occasion because of his homosexuality, and occasionally had to be put into solitary confinement for his own protection.

The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is studying the US court ruling denying the extradition and has said it will "take advice on the matter" and "make a decision" in due course. Cote said the Irish authorities' apparent indication not to let the matter rest "was a concern" for Exoo.

Law lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, Des Ryan, noted that a ruling of a district court in the US could ordinarily be the subject of an appeal. In this case, as it's an extradition matter, it would be extremely difficult to appeal, he said.