A for­mer leg­is­la­tor with the main op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Par­ty (PNP), Jolyan Sil­vera, has been charged with the mur­der of his wife, Melis­sa.

Sil­vera, who has been in cus­tody since Thurs­day, was charged fol­low­ing ques­tion­ing on Fri­day morn­ing by de­tec­tives at­tached to the Ma­jor In­ves­ti­ga­tion Di­vi­sion.

Ac­cord­ing to the Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice in charge of crime, Fitz Bai­ley, Sil­vera was tak­en in­to cus­tody fol­low­ing con­sul­ta­tion with the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions and af­ter the po­lice “sat­is­fied our­selves that there is suf­fi­cient ev­i­dence to mount a vi­able pros­e­cu­tion”.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports, on No­vem­ber 10, Mrs. Sil­vera re­port­ed­ly died in her sleep, but a post­mortem lat­er re­vealed the pres­ence of bul­let frag­ments in her body.

The po­lice then opened a mur­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the mat­ter, how­ev­er, Sil­vera’s at­tor­ney, Pe­ter Cham­pag­nie, says his client is main­tain­ing his in­no­cence.