The husband of the murdered Latvian woman, Baiba Saulite, has been sentenced to two years in jail for abducting their two young children and arranging to have them sent to his family in Syria.
Hassan Hassan pleaded guilty to abducting his sons in December 2004.
They were aged two and 17 months at the time and were not returned to Ireland until September 2005.
This morning, Hassan told Judge Michael White at the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin that he was really sorry and he did not mean for things to get this far.
He said he had not meant any harm but that he had been afraid Ms Saulite would take the children to Latvia and he would never see them again.
At the time of the abduction, Hassan was due to go on trial for his part in a stolen car ring.
He said he knew he would be sentenced to three to five years in prison and he said Ms Saulite had threatened she would take the children to Latvia, or Russia, that he would never find them and that she would not tell them who their father was.
He said as soon as he got joint custody of the children, he arranged for them to be brought back to Ireland.
But he said he never meant for them to be away from their mother and from him for so long, and that he had missed them as much as Ms Saulite.
Judge Michael White, said there were a number of mitigating circumstances - Hassan had pleaded guilty at an early stage and there was no issue of cruelty or neglect to the children.
But the judge said the abduction had been premeditated and well planned, the children were very young and their removal from their mother for such a long time would have been very traumatic for them.
The judge said the children were not returned until their return was made a condition of a High Court bail order.
At the time of the abduction, Hassan had rights of custody and had not made any application to the courts to have his rights vindicated.
He said there was no evidence Ms Saulite was going to take the children out of the jurisdiction and Hassan had made clear efforts to intimidate Ms Saulite into dropping her court case.
The judge said they were serious offences and a custodial sentence must be imposed.
He sentenced Hassan to two years in prison to run after he has served his current sentence in relation to the stolen car ring.
Ms Saulite was shot dead in the hallway of her home in Swords, Co Dublin, on 19 November.
