JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, February 23, 2025

Deputy DPP says PM, Anand not cleared in Emailgate

by

20150513

Deputy Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions Joan Hon­ore-Paul last night slammed Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for her sug­ges­tion that she and her col­leagues should be cleared in the Email­gate probe, say­ing the po­lice were far from done with their in­ves­ti­ga­tions and the case was still wide open.

She al­so chas­tised Per­sad-Bisses­sar for re­leas­ing con­tents of re­ports pro­vid­ed to the po­lice from the US De­part­ment of Jus­tice, say­ing that the treaty un­der which this in­for­ma­tion was pro­vid­ed pro­hib­it­ed any­one else oth­er than the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty par­ties prob­ing the mat­ter to use it.

Hon­ore-Paul's com­ment comes days af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar and mem­bers of her par­ty at­tacked Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley over the Email­gate mat­ter in the wake of his sus­pen­sion from Par­lia­ment last week. The Gov­ern­ment used some of the in­for­ma­tion from the US De­part­ment of Jus­tice re­port dur­ing the de­bate of cen­sure against Row­ley.

Us­ing so­cial me­dia ear­li­er this week, Per­sad-Bisses­sar had al­so tak­en Row­ley to task af­ter her US-based lawyer, Jack Rus­so, sug­gest­ed that both she and for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan had been cleared af­ter Google Inc had pro­vid­ed in­for­ma­tion which sug­gest­ed there was no match for any of the emails pre­sent­ed in the doc­u­ments by Row­ley in the House in 2013.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar had al­so called on the po­lice to ex­pe­dite the mat­ter, not­ing that her Gov­ern­ment should not be fac­ing the spec­tre of such an al­le­ga­tion head­ing in­to a gen­er­al elec­tion.

But deal­ing specif­i­cal­ly with the is­sue of whether the case was close to an end, Hon­ore-Paul said, "This in­ves­ti­ga­tion re­lates not on­ly to whether the emails were in fact sent in Sep­tem­ber 2012 but al­so whether there may have been acts by par­tic­u­lar per­sons which amount to mis­con­duct in pub­lic of­fice."The in­ves­ti­ga­tion nec­es­sar­i­ly in­cludes an ex­am­i­na­tion of events out­side of the four cor­ners of the pur­port­ed email cor­re­spon­dence, since these may have the po­ten­tial to con­firm or re­fute the dis­put­ed email com­mu­ni­ca­tions."

Re­quest for help

She said the po­lice team start­ed its in­ves­ti­ga­tions af­ter the pur­port­ed emails were for­ward­ed by the PM to act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Stephen Williams in 2013 for in­ves­ti­ga­tion.She said since then the po­lice had re­quest­ed help, through the Cen­tral Au­thor­i­ty, from the US De­part­ment of Jus­tice and it was fa­cil­i­tat­ed be­cause the re­quest was sup­port­ed by "ev­i­dence which met the re­quired lev­el of 'prob­a­ble cause.'

She said the US De­part­ment of Jus­tice act­ing on the re­quest served a war­rant on cer­tain ser­vice providers in the US, among them Google Inc, and sub­se­quent­ly for­ward­ed that in­for­ma­tion to the Cen­tral Au­thor­i­ty, which in turn passed it to DCP Glen Hack­ett, who is head­ing the lo­cal probe.

She said, "While it is true, that af­ter re­ceipt of the in­for­ma­tion from the De­part­ment of Jus­tice, the po­lice team led by Su­per­in­ten­dent Baldeo Nanan did send a re­port to Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Glen Hack­ett, it is not true that such re­port cleared Mr Anand Ram­lo­gan and Mrs Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar in re­spect of this in­ves­ti­ga­tion."

She added, "The Unit­ed States De­part­ment of Jus­tice's re­sponse did not treat with all the mat­ters re­quest­ed by the in­ves­tiga­tive team and fur­ther, the Unit­ed States De­part­ment of Jus­tice is yet to re­lay any in­for­ma­tion re­lat­ed to the Hot­mail ac­counts "cap­tain­gary­grif­fith@hot­mail.com" and "su­ru­jram­bachan@hot­mail.com.

"They have in­di­cat­ed that such in­for­ma­tion will be sent as soon as pos­si­ble. Quite prop­er­ly, there was ab­solute­ly no find­ing made by the Unit­ed States De­part­ment of Jus­tice nor was any dis­closed in writ­ten cor­re­spon­dence. The Unit­ed States De­part­ment of Jus­tice was con­cerned on­ly with re­lay­ing the da­ta or in­for­ma­tion that was re­ceived by virtue of the above-men­tioned war­rant. This is its le­gal re­mit."

She con­clud­ed that any at­tempt to give the "im­pres­sion that there has been some fi­nal­i­ty in this re­gard is mis­lead­ing."

Nat­ur­al jus­tice

Deal­ing with the re­lease of the in­for­ma­tion in the pub­lic do­main, Hon­ore-Paul said she had not­ed sev­er­al me­dia ar­ti­cles which quot­ed from var­i­ous doc­u­ment pro­vid­ed by the US State De­part­ment to the lo­cal in­ves­ti­ga­tors.How­ev­er, she cau­tioned, "Any par­al­lel in­ves­ti­ga­tion by in­ter­est­ed par­ties and the pub­lic air­ing of the sup­posed re­sults are pal­pa­bly self-serv­ing and bring to mind the need for the le­gal max­im, "no man should be a judge in his own cause."

"This is a bedrock prin­ci­ple of nat­ur­al jus­tice, the rule of law and due process. It ex­ists to en­sure im­par­tial­i­ty by the dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion of po­ten­tial­ly bi­ased or in­ter­est­ed par­ties in the in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

"Fur­ther, notwith­stand­ing the fact that the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice has the in­sti­tu­tion­al strength and his­to­ry to with­stand pres­sure from what­ev­er source, the pub­li­ca­tion of this in­for­ma­tion de­rived from pri­vate sources, has the po­ten­tial to in­ter­fere with the in­ves­ti­ga­tions be­ing con­duct­ed by in­de­pen­dent and im­par­tial bod­ies, such as the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion and the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice. More­over, it has the po­ten­tial to in­ter­fere with the pub­lic per­cep­tion of the sound­ness of these in­ves­ti­ga­tions."

She al­so said the use of the in­for­ma­tion in the "pub­lic are­na with­out the per­mis­sion of one's in­ter­na­tion­al part­ner is es­pe­cial­ly dis­turb­ing and dan­ger­ous, since such ac­tion vi­o­lates what is ex­pect­ed by way of in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion and more par­tic­u­lar­ly, it at­tracts ques­tions marks as to our abil­i­ty to ho­n­our our in­ter­na­tion­al le­gal oblig­a­tions, thus po­ten­tial­ly in­flu­enc­ing, neg­a­tive­ly, the out­come of fu­ture re­quests by Trinidad and To­ba­go for Mu­tu­al Le­gal As­sis­tance."

About Email­gate

On May 20, 2013, Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley pre­sent­ed to Par­lia­ment a thread of 31 email mes­sages pur­port­ing to be a con­ver­sa­tion be­tween four peo­ple whose email ac­counts bore close re­sem­blance to that of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, then at­tor­ney gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan, for­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Gary Grif­fith and Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Su­ruj Ram­bachan.

The con­ver­sa­tion be­tween the par­ties sur­round­ed the pub­li­ca­tion of a sto­ry in the T&T Guardian news­pa­per about the procla­ma­tion of Sec­tion 34 of the Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Jus­tice (In­dictable Of­fences) Amend­ment Act and a con­spir­a­cy to mur­der the re­porter purs­ing the sto­ry.

Sec­tion 34 was pro­claimed on Au­gust 31, 2012 and was viewed as leg­is­la­tion spe­cial­ly craft­ed to ben­e­fit Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress fi­nanciers Ish­war Gal­barans­ingh and Steve Fer­gu­son, who were charged with a se­ries of crim­i­nal of­fences re­lat­ing to the Pi­ar­co Air­port De­vel­op­ment Project.

The con­ver­sa­tion in the emails al­so made sug­ges­tions of spy­ing on Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions Roger Gas­pard and an at­tempt to re­move him from of­fice by of­fer­ing him the po­si­tion as a High Court judge.

Since then, Sec­tion 34 was re­pealed by an emer­gency ses­sion of Par­lia­ment. Two par­al­lel in­ves­ti­ga­tions were com­menced - one by the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion and an­oth­er by the po­lice ser­vice. Both are in­com­plete.DPP Roger Gas­pard al­so re­cused him­self from over­see­ing the mat­ter as he was named in the emails.

Hot­mail ac­counts out­stand­ing

Deputy DPP Hon­ore-Paul said the po­lice team start­ed its in­ves­ti­ga­tions af­ter the pur­port­ed emails were for­ward­ed by the PM to act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Stephen Williams in 2013 for in­ves­ti­ga­tion.She said since then the po­lice had re­quest­ed help, through the Cen­tral Au­thor­i­ty, from the US De­part­ment of Jus­tice and it was fa­cil­i­tat­ed be­cause the re­quest was sup­port­ed by "ev­i­dence which met the re­quired lev­el of 'prob­a­ble cause.'

She said the US De­part­ment of Jus­tice act­ing on the re­quest served a war­rant on cer­tain ser­vice providers in the US, among them Google Inc, and sub­se­quent­ly for­ward­ed that in­for­ma­tion to the Cen­tral Au­thor­i­ty, which in turn passed it to DCP Glen Hack­ett, who is head­ing the lo­cal probe.

She said, "While it is true, that af­ter re­ceipt of the in­for­ma­tion from the De­part­ment of Jus­tice, the po­lice team led by Su­per­in­ten­dent Baldeo Nanan did send a re­port to Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Glen Hack­ett, it is not true that such re­port cleared Mr Anand Ram­lo­gan and Mrs Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar in re­spect of this in­ves­ti­ga­tion."

She added, "The Unit­ed States De­part­ment of Jus­tice's re­sponse did not treat with all the mat­ters re­quest­ed by the in­ves­tiga­tive team and fur­ther, the Unit­ed States De­part­ment of Jus­tice is yet to re­lay any in­for­ma­tion re­lat­ed to the Hot­mail ac­counts "cap­tain­gary­grif­fith@hot­mail.com" and "su­ru­jram­bachan@hot­mail.com.

"They have in­di­cat­ed that such in­for­ma­tion will be sent as soon as pos­si­ble. Quite prop­er­ly, there was ab­solute­ly no find­ing made by the Unit­ed States De­part­ment of Jus­tice nor was any dis­closed in writ­ten cor­re­spon­dence. The Unit­ed States De­part­ment of Jus­tice was con­cerned on­ly with re­lay­ing the da­ta or in­for­ma­tion that was re­ceived by virtue of the above-men­tioned war­rant. This is its le­gal re­mit."

She con­clud­ed that any at­tempt to give the "im­pres­sion that there has been some fi­nal­i­ty in this re­gard is mis­lead­ing."Deal­ing with the re­lease of the in­for­ma­tion in the pub­lic do­main, Hon­ore-Paul said she had not­ed sev­er­al me­dia ar­ti­cles which quot­ed from var­i­ous doc­u­ment pro­vid­ed by the US State De­part­ment to the lo­cal in­ves­ti­ga­tors.

How­ev­er, she cau­tioned, "Any par­al­lel in­ves­ti­ga­tion by in­ter­est­ed par­ties and the pub­lic air­ing of the sup­posed re­sults are pal­pa­bly self-serv­ing and bring to mind the need for the le­gal max­im, "no man should be a judge in his own cause."

"This is a bedrock prin­ci­ple of nat­ur­al jus­tice, the rule of law and due process. It ex­ists to en­sure im­par­tial­i­ty by the dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion of po­ten­tial­ly bi­ased or in­ter­est­ed par­ties in the in­ves­ti­ga­tions."Fur­ther, notwith­stand­ing the fact that the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice has the in­sti­tu­tion­al strength and his­to­ry to with­stand pres­sure from what­ev­er source, the pub­li­ca­tion of this in­for­ma­tion de­rived from pri­vate sources, has the po­ten­tial to in­ter­fere with the in­ves­ti­ga­tions be­ing con­duct­ed by in­de­pen­dent and im­par­tial bod­ies, such as the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion and the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice.

More­over, it has the po­ten­tial to in­ter­fere with the pub­lic per­cep­tion of the sound­ness of these in­ves­ti­ga­tions."

She al­so said the use of the in­for­ma­tion in the "pub­lic are­na with­out the per­mis­sion of one's in­ter­na­tion­al part­ner is es­pe­cial­ly dis­turb­ing and dan­ger­ous, since such ac­tion vi­o­lates what is ex­pect­ed by way of in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion and more par­tic­u­lar­ly, it at­tracts ques­tions marks as to our abil­i­ty to ho­n­our our in­ter­na­tion­al le­gal oblig­a­tions, thus po­ten­tial­ly in­flu­enc­ing, neg­a­tive­ly, the out­come of fu­ture re­quests by Trinidad and To­ba­go for Mu­tu­al Le­gal As­sis­tance."


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored