SENATOR DAVID Norris has rejected prospect of releasing further clemency letters he sent on behalf of his former Israeli partner. He said he was acting in accordance with legal advice.
The Independent candidate said the unpublished letters, written to senior politicians in Ireland and Israel, were similar to that already released.
“I am absolutely restricted by questions of privacy,” he said.
“I understand people’s interest but I’ve been told by my lawyers that these letters are subject to professional legal privilege and I’ve been told I cannot publish them.”
Last night, he reiterated his position, saying the case had been heard in camera and he had been advised against releasing the letters by both Irish and Israeli lawyers. “I am being asked to break the law,” he said of those challenging his position.
Mr Norris withdrew for a time from the presidential race after it emerged he had appealed in 1997 for clemency for Ezra Nawi, who was convicted of statutory rape of a 15-year-old boy.
Yesterday he was repeatedly questioned on the issue in a series of media interviews, including the first broadcast debate of the presidential campaign.
In the debate, chaired by Seán O'Rourke on RTÉ Radio's News at One, Senator Norris spoke of his determination to succeed in the campaign. "I am tempered steel; I have been through the fire," he said.
In the same debate, Martin McGuinness continued holding to the position that he left the Irish Republican Army in 1974, while Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell accused the Sinn Féin candidate of inflating his role in the peace process.
Labour’s Michael D Higgins insisted he was physically capable of carrying out the duties of president, including foreign travel and Independent candidate Mary Davis said she joined the boards of various organisations because they helped with the 2003 Special Olympics.
Independent Seán Gallagher said he would reach out to various groups such as the farming community and Dana Rosemary Scallon cited family reasons for her late entry into the presidential race.
Challenged about his IRA links, Mr McGuinness said: “The reality is that I was convicted of IRA membership in 1973 and in 1974 and never after that, never, ever charged with IRA membership again. But I have never denied my past in the IRA: the circumstances that existed on the streets of Derry with our citizens being treated as second-class citizens, treated like dirt.”
Mr McGuinness’s estimation of his role in the peace process was challenged by Mr Mitchell who pointed to the involvement of Albert Reynolds, Bertie Ahern, Dick Spring and, before them, Garret FitzGerald.
When Mr Higgins was asked if he had “the vigour and the stamina” for the job, he replied: “I have just completed, I think it is, 23,000km since the 19th of May, travelling the country.”
When asked why she had entered the campaign so late, Ms Scallon said: “We had two very traumatic years in our family. Most big families do tend to hit those brick walls. We lost eight family members, beginning with my mother.”
When it was put to her that she had taken an “absolutist” position in relation to the abortion referendum of 2002, thereby contributing to its defeat, she said: “I had to take a stand against the position taken by the bishops, because they were not fully informed and the people of this country were not fully informed.”
Mr Gallagher listed farmers among the groups to whom the presidency should appeal: “I am probably the only candidate to have ever had their own herd number. I started out in agriculture.”
Asked about her appointment to the boards of various agencies, Ms Davis said her first board appointment was to the Irish Sports Council “by the Fine Gael-led rainbow coalition government”.
After the 2003 World Special Olympic Games, she said she was asked by President, Mary McAleese to serve on the Council of State.