O’Brien ramps up attack on tribunal

A FRUSTRATED Denis O’Brien upped his attack on the Moriarty Tribunal by declaring that hundreds of thousands of documents had been concealed from legal teams and insisted that lawyers for the inquiry needed to be sanctioned.

The billionaire businessman welcomed a statement this week by tribunal chair Justice Michael Moriarty that the inquiry’s final report would be based on evidence and not hearsay.

But Mr O’Brien argued that developments in recent days proved the provisional findings of the tribunal needed to be scrapped.

The telecoms and media tycoon claimed his name had been damned for nine years during the inquiry and an independent examiner was now needed to asses what documents should be released from the tribunal.

“People should be patient about the delivery of the final report. I’ve no doubt Mr Moriarty will be a man of his word given what he has said in the last 24 hours to the way this report is going to be based on evidence and submissions from parties.

“If it takes an extra three or four months for the report to be issued, I think we should make that time available so justice can be done.”

Evidence was given by one official from Office of the Attorney General yesterday about legal advice in 1996 on whether a licence could be granted to Denis O’Brien for the State’s second mobile phone network.

Mr O’Brien has claimed in recent days that original details of this evidence had been withheld by the tribunal.

The details undermine the tribunal’s opening statement, he claims.

The businessman, who hastily called a press conference yesterday, claimed the issue of hidden documents had left his legal team at a “severe disadvantage” in defending his name.

He called for an independent expert, possibly from an accounting firm and not necessarily a legal one, to assess what documents should now be released to defending lawyers at the Tribunal inquiry.

“If you don’t have documents made available to you and they’re concealed, well then you have one hand behind your back and you have one leg in the air because in that case you cannot defend yourself.”