CPI accuses McDowell of 'blackening' Connolly's name

The Centre for public Inquiry (CPI) has this evening reiterated its support for its Executive Director Frank Connolly who Minister for Justice Michael McDowell alleged had travelled to Colombia on a false passport.

Frank Connolly

Mr McDowell made the claim in a written reply to a Dáil question on December 6th last and has admitted leaking a document to a national newspaper on the issue.

The CPI said in a statement that the allegations against the former journalist were "entirely without evidential basis, unsustainable, and totally untrue." It also criticised the Minister for the "blackening" of Mr Connolly's character.

The statement adds that the CPI "believes in valued legal principles such as the presumption of innocence and the application of due process.

It refers to a letter issued by the Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP) on March 7th, 2003, in which a decision not to prosecute Mr Connolly was outlined.

"This information would have been available to the Minister for Justice, his Department and the Garda authorities for up to two years and eight months yet Mr Connolly was only informed of the DPP's decision in recent days," the CPI statement added.

"Despite the DPP's decision in March 2003 not to prosecute Mr Connolly, a private and public blackening of his character has been unleashed by the Minister."

It continued: "The methods adopted by the Minister may well have undermined the status, authority and the statutory independence of the DPP."

Funding for the CPI was withdrawn by Atlantic Philanthropies after the Mr McDowell sent its founding chairman and director, American billionaire Chuck Feeney, a copy of a forged passport application alleged to have featured a picture of Mr Connolly.

The CPI has said that a further statement will be made in relation to funding "in due course".

Mr McDowell has responded to criticism by claiming it was his duty to tell the public about Mr Connolly's alleged role in an IRA plot to sell bombing information to Farc rebels in Colombia. He told the Dáil that the CPI has the capacity to undermine the authority of the State if it falls into subversive hands.

Mr Connolly has repeatedly denied all allegations laid against him by Mr McDowell.