Former attorney general John Jeremie, SC, says T&T is facing a constitutional crisis caused by the “self-serving and repeated attempts” by the Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to interfere in the Emailgate criminal investigation.
Yesterday, Jeremie, through a media release, said President Anthony Carmona must act swiftly.
Jeremie said, “The President of the Republic must move swiftly to dismiss the remaining commissioners, to reconstitute yet another failed Integrity Commission and further, must now use his ‘good offices’ to cause the Government to pull back from the daily and increasingly strident attacks on the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions, an office he once occupied.”
Jeremie added that it was likely that this alone could serve to alleviate the dangerous constitutional crisis that now faced the country.
He contended that in the prime minister’s rush to vindicate herself certain matters were not addressed.
The commission, he said, was required to investigate only potential breaches of the Integrity in Public Life Act.
“It does not have police powers and in particular it has no general power to investigate criminal wrongdoing and obviously no power to initiate prosecutions in criminal matters,” he said.
Even where the commission considers that there has been a potential breach of the Integrity in Public Life Act, Jeremie said, the IC had no power to prosecute such breaches but must refer the matter to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
“The police service and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions have the responsibility to investigate and prosecute alleged criminal wrongdoing,” he said.
Jeremie said that the “strident attacks on the independent Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions are dangerous to our democracy and injurious to our international standing.”