An­tigua and Bar­bu­da Prime Min­is­ter Gas­ton Browne said yes­ter­day that the in­for­ma­tion which led im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cers to make “fur­ther in­quiries” of for­mer T&T prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley did not orig­i­nate in St John’s.

He told the Caribbean Me­dia Cor­po­ra­tion (CMC) that im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cials in An­tigua and Bar­bu­da treat­ed Row­ley with re­spect and act­ed on the in­for­ma­tion in the same way they would have, had the “no­ta­tion” been about any oth­er trav­eller.

On Ju­ly 21, Row­ley, who stepped down from ac­tive pol­i­tics in March, said he was de­tained on Ju­ly 14 dur­ing a stopover in An­tigua be­cause his name had been placed on a watch list of the Paris-based In­ter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Po­lice Or­gan­i­sa­tion.

Row­ley, a ge­ol­o­gist, said he was on his way to Montser­rat when he was stopped at VC Bird In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port.

Browne, who is at­tend­ing the two-day Fourth AfriCaribbean Trade and In­vest­ment Fo­rum tak­ing place in Grena­da, said Row­ley was not de­tained in An­tigua and Bar­bu­da.

“Well, it was not a de­ten­tion. My un­der­stand­ing is that there was cer­tain in­for­ma­tion with­in our im­mi­gra­tion por­tal that did not em­anate from with­in An­tigua that caused im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cers to, let’s say, do fur­ther in­quiries,” Browne said.

“But in any event, he was not de­tained, and he was treat­ed with full re­spect as a for­mer prime min­is­ter. But I do ac­cept that there was cer­tain in­for­ma­tion that was in the sys­tem, but it did not em­anate with­in our shores.”

Row­ley de­scribed the in­ci­dent as a das­tard­ly act of po­lit­i­cal per­se­cu­tion and ac­cused state en­ti­ties in T&T of fab­ri­cat­ing and ex­e­cut­ing a “vi­cious defama­tion cam­paign.”

“This is not just a mis­take, it is a de­lib­er­ate, cal­cu­lat­ed at­tempt to tar­nish my name on an in­ter­na­tion­al stage,” Row­ley told a news con­fer­ence, adding, “It is state-spon­sored slan­der.”