Graft probe judge clashes with Ahern's lawyer

By Andras Gergely

DUBLIN (Reuters) - A tribunal probing payments to Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern when he was finance minister in the 1990s ground to a halt on Friday after a row erupted between its top judge and Ahern's lawyer.

Tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon adjourned for a 10 minute cooling off period after angrily denying suggestions by Ahern's legal team that lawyers acting for the inquiry can influence decisions by its panel of three judges.

"One side of the argument has access to you and the other doesn't," Ahern's lawyer Conor Maguire told the judges.

"That cannot in any sense of the word be fair and reasonable or be fair and equal treatment."

A visibly agitated Mahon described it as the most serious claim ever made against the decade-long investigation into relationships between politicians and property developers who made vast profits on planning decisions in the 1990s.

"You are saying that we are crooks ... that we are conducting a witch hunt," Mahon said. "What I absolutely deplore is this constant theme that we have from you that in some way we are on some sort of a twisted, illegal, corrupt frolic."

Ahern has previously attacked the tribunal for delving into every area of his finances after failing to prove initial allegations that he accepted money in return for favours.

He has admitted receiving tens of thousands of pounds from friends, businessmen and family in the early 1990s but has denied any wrongdoing, describing his finances as complex but not improper following the breakdown of his marriage.