Former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall has lost his appeal against the severity of his sentence.
Dowdall is serving four years in prison for facilitating the murder of Kinahan gang member David Byrne on 5 February 2016.
The murder escalated the ongoing Hutch-Kinahan feud, which has so far cost the lives of 18 people.
Mr Justice George Birminghan said at the Court of Appeal that the sentence was "very lenient" and "if we had any doubt it would be as to whether a more severe sentence ought to have been imposed".
A convicted torturer, Dowdall admitted he was involved in booking a room at the Regency Hotel the night before the murder of Byrne.
The Kinahan gang member was shot dead by the Hutch Organised Crime Group the following day, 5 February 2016, in a murder that escalated the Hutch-Kinahan feud.
The room booked by Dowdall and his father Patrick was used by one of the gunmen, Kevin 'flat cap' Murray who died the following year before he could be brought to trial.
Dowdall agreed to give evidence against the leader of the Hutch Organised Crime Group, Gerard Hutch, who earlier this year was found not guilty of the murder.
Dowdall was sentenced on 17 October 2022 to four years in prison for his role in the crime but appealed the sentence claiming it was too severe and that he had been "duped" and put in the firing line for the Regency attack "by a contrived event of disinformation".
Murray, he claimed, was at the hotel to attract attention so that the investigating gardaí would be misdirected in a paramilitary direction.
However, the Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal.
The court found that the Hutch Organised Crime Group, which Dowdall admitted helping, was "far removed from a group of local juveniles" involved in stealing cars, but was in fact "a tier one criminal organisation".
It found the Special Criminal Court "properly had regard" to the fact that "even in the aftermath of the murder" Jonathan Dowdall "continued to assist" by driving Gerard Hutch to Northern Ireland as late as 7 March 2016.
It found the headline sentence of eight years in prison before mitigating factors were considered was "well within the range available to the Special Criminal Court" and that had it been a headline sentence of 10 years, the Court of Appeal would have been "unlikely ... to intervene".
Dowdall pleaded guilty to the offence and the three judges said today they were "satisfied that the Special Criminal Court had proper regard to that plea of guilty".
They said the issue of suspending part of the sentence such as to encourage rehabilitation "did not really arise" because Dowdall had decided to "co-operate with the authorities" and "would be leaving the jurisdiction on completion of his sentence".
The Court of Appeal also said it would not demur from the State's observation that Dowdall's four-year sentence could be considered "generous".
Mr Justice Birmingham said it "has to be seen as lenient - indeed, very lenient".
He also said if the Court of Appeal "had any doubts about the appropriateness of the sentence, it would be as to whether a more severe sentence ought to have been imposed".
"We will content ourselves by saying we are entirely satisfied that the sentence cannot be regarded as unduly severe," he said, "we therefore dismiss the appeal".
