THE estranged husband of murdered Latvian Baiba Saulite will be released from prison in six weeks' time as the DPP has directed that Hassan Hassan should not face charges of conspiring to murder his wife.

Detectives investigating the murder had been confident that Lebanese national Hassan would be charged with ordering his wife's killing and were shocked and disappointed by the DPP's recent direction. However, a senior source insisted that detectives are still gathering evidence in relation to the murder and are still pursuing charges against Hassan Hassan.

He is currently serving a four-year sentence for his part in a stolen car ring and a consecutive two-year sentence for kidnapping his two children in 2004. He abducted his two sons and arranged for them to go to Syria because he said he feared his estranged wife would take them to Latvia and he would never see them again. "He has gotten his wish. He's due out of prison and he now gets their two children because she's gone. That's what he wanted. He has gotten away with this," said a source.

The Saulite family in Latvia are disappointed that no one has been charged with Baiba's killing and had initially considered seeking custody of her two sons Ali (8) and Mohamed (6). However, they received legal advice that winning custody of the boys over their father would be difficult. It is also understood that they were fearful of repercussions from Hassan if they sought custody of the children. The boys are currently being cared for by Hassan's family.

Saulite was shot dead by a hired assassin as she stood at the front door of her home in Swords, Dublin, on 19 November 2006. Her two sons slept in an upstairs bedroom while the murder took place. Detectives believe that Hassan Hassan initially arranged for two north African men to shoot his wife. Gardaí have interviewed these two individuals and they have admitted following the young woman and taking surveillance shots of her which were then sent to Hassan's camera phone in prison. However, the two Africans eventually informed Hassan they would not go through with the murder.

Officers believe the Lebanese national then approached a senior member of the notorious McCarthy-Dundon crime gang in Limerick and asked them for help. It is thought the Limerick gang organised for two Dublin criminals, part of a gang led by the country's most serious criminal based in Finglas, to carry out the murder.

Gardaí sent an initial file to the DPP in relation to Saulite's murder in 2007. Detectives initially expected word back from the DPP in 2008 but there have been repeated minor queries from the office over some of the statements.

Almost two months ago, the DPP informed gardaí there wasn't sufficient evidence to bring a charge of conspiracy to murder against Hassan. It is an unusual and difficult charge to prove, but detectives believed they had sufficient evidence.

After his wife's murder, Hassan applied for early release to look after his children and attend Saulite's funeral. Following the failed appeal court hearing, he shouted to the waiting media that he was innocent of any involvement in his wife's murder. "I, Hassan Hassan, am being blamed for my wife's murder. I am being framed. I did not kill my wife," he said.

Baiba Saulite moved to Ireland with her boyfriend in 2000. She was from Riga in Latvia. Her relationship with her Latvian boyfriend soon ended and she then met and began dating Hassan Hassan, who had been in the country since the mid 1980s.

The couple married and moved to Lucan where they had two sons. Saulite was a Christian while Hassan only told her he was a Muslim after they married. He then insisted that their children be raised in the Muslim faith.

This placed a significant strain on their relationship and the marriage subsequently ended. Saulite took the children to live with her in Swords and in December 2004 Hassan Hassan failed to return his sons after a scheduled three-day visit.

It eventually emerged that he had taken the children to Syria where they were being cared for by his mother. Saulite initially didn't know if they had been taken out of the country. She went on Joe Duffy's Liveline and spoke in harrowing terms about her loss, desperately appealing for people to look out for her sons.

Swords District Court ordered that Hassan return the children to Ireland, which he eventually did. The boys were returned to live with their mother although Hassan had applied for custody.

While her husband was behind bars, Saulite began receiving serious threats and her car was burnt out. Her solicitor, John Hennessy, also received threats and petrol was poured through the front door of his home in February 2006 and set alight. Three-and-a-half years after her murder, he remains under armed garda protection.