Former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, and Independent Liberal Party (ILP) leader Jack Warner are calling for an immediate police investigation into whether there was a conspiracy by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to pervert the course of justice.
This comes on the heels of the resignation of two Integrity Commission members—retired judge Sebastian Ventour and Dr Shelly Anne Lalchan—48 hours after the commission’s statement that it had terminated its Emailgate investigation.
Lalchan claimed she resigned for personal reasons, but Ventour said the commission had misled the country on the Emailgate issue.
In a statement, Maharaj also called on President Anthony Carmona to dismiss the commission because it “has quite obviously at a minimum been placed under a dark cloud of suspicion.”
Additionally, Maharaj also called on the Prime Minister to tender her resignation and take immediate steps to dissolve Parliament and hold the general election.
“These events have shown that public office was misused and abused and that the Parliament and public office were used to promote the governing party’s political interests and not the public interest of T&T.”
He said the revelation by Ventour that the commission had not completed its work in the Emailgate matter and the rush by the commission to send a letter to the Prime Minister was “not only worrisome, but it is frightening and it brings the Integrity Commission into disrepute.”
Maharaj said he was left with no choice but to call on the police service to immediately launch a probe into whether the Prime Minister (acting with others) had interfered in the commission’s investigation and interfered and/or attempted to interfere in the police investigation.
“These matters amount, if proven, to the criminal offences of conspiring to pervert the course of public justice and/or attempting to pervert the course of public justice,” he said.
He also urged the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and police service to continue their investigations into the matter.
Warner, meanwhile, said the ILP “is strongly of the view that something scandalous is afoot in this matter.”
Alluding to the suspension of Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley from Parliament and government’s alleged violation of the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (MLACM) Treaty with the United States, Warner said, “These matters must be completely and thoroughly investigated, as must the Emailgate affair in which additional information is still being awaited by the TTPS investigators from Google Inc and other email service providers.
“The actions of the Prime Minister and others, by behaving in a wanton and immature fashion, has now compromised this investigation and has given rise to fresh concerns with respect to breaches of the law.
“The ILP calls on the TTPS to do two things: first to caution all persons to refrain from further comment on this matter, and secondly, and unfortunately, to launch an investigation into whether the Prime Minister and other persons have conspired to pervert the course of public justice in this matter.