(Jamaica Observer) Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne was on Monday accused of corruptly using her office in the Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke extradition saga to protect the political career of Prime Minister Bruce Golding and the political interest of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
But Lightbourne, who is also the attorney general, emphatically rejected the charge made by Queen’s Counsel KD Knight, who had been grilling her for days during the Dudus/Manatt Commission of Enquiry.
On Monday, Knight repeatedly accused the minister of acting corruptly under the guise of protecting Coke’s constitutional rights.
He also accused her of employing delay tactics in a bid to preserve Coke’s political power. But the minister dismissed the accusations and stoutly maintained that she had acted to protect Coke’s constitutional rights in her handling of the August 29, 2009 extradition request from the United States.
“Miss Lightbourne, you sought information on this in order to delay the extradition request and you did so by the corrupt use of your authority,” said Knight.
“That is absolutely untrue and not necessary…,” Lightbourne responded.
Knight made this accusation after reading a letter from the US, responding to concerns from Lightbourne about the two witnesses against Coke not being identified. In its letter, the US said that there had been three similar cases in 2009 alone in which the authority to proceed had been signed by the justice minister.
Knight, on several occasions, made the suggestion that Lightbourne used her office in a corrupt manner regarding the extradition request.
“I’m suggesting that your behaviour in this entire matter has been such that the great office [of justice minister] has been demeaned in your corrupt quest to preserve the political…,” Knight stated before being cut off by Lightbourne who said that there was no evidence to substantiate the claim.
“There is,” Knight quickly responded “your corrupt quest, your involvement in a plot.”
“I think he’s losing his mind,” Lightbourne retorted, to much laughter.
In one of the heated exchanges between the two, just moments before the day’s adjournment, commission chairman Emil George, QC, intervened, telling Lightbourne, “Just answer the question. “Just say no.” George’s directive, apparently borne out of frustration, caused great laughter among some of the spectators observing the sitting and a few attorneys.
In what could be described as her most intense grilling in the enquiry to date, Lightbourne was also accused by Knight of being incompetent in her duty as minister of justice and attorney general, which she also denied.
Knight also accused Lightbourne of being “clueless and confused” and “without any idea” of the meaning of the statutes she claimed to have consulted over the nine-month period in which she failed to sign the authority to proceed with extradition proceedings against Coke.
The minister did not respond.
Meantime, Lightbourne said on Monday that she was aware, from allegations, that Coke was a don for Tivoli Gardens but said she does not know him to be a strongman for the JLP.
Meanwhile, she said she could not blame the public servants — Lisa Palmer-Hamilton from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the former Commissioner of Police Hardly Lewin, or the then head of the army Major General Stewart Saunders nor army attorney Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Cole — for their early involvement in the extradition matter.
But Lightbourne said she did not blame herself either, noting that, in hindsight, there is nothing she would do differently in the extradition request.
Meanwhile, Lightbourne also said that she has informed, verbally, the prime minister that the two controversial memoranda of understanding signed by former security minister Dr Peter Phillips in 2004 should not be used until amended to conform with Jamaica laws.
