(Trinidad Express) Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs has been directed to investigate the police officers responsible for leaking a security intelligence report used by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley to discredit a purported plot to kill Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and three other Government ministers.
The order was given by acting Prime Minister Winston Dookeran, in his capacity as head of the National Security Council.
This was revealed on Tuesday by acting National Security Minister Herbert Volney during the opening of a Legal Aid and Advisory Authority office in San Fernando.
Volney said the probe was meant to “identify the conspirators, if more than one, of this ugly episode and to bring that person or persons to justice”.
Rowley, last month, handed over a copy of an “evaluation report” to President George Maxwell Richards, in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.
In the letter to the president, dated December 8, Rowley stated, “The contents of the report of November 23 is damning of the actions of the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Security…. They continue to mislead the public and abuse innocent citizens for the purpose of political imaging making to the benefit of the political executive.”
Rowley said two documents came into his possession “from a highly credible source”, which he believed were copies of true security reports of November 18 and November 23. He said one report spoke of a “possible/likely” assassination attempt. He said the contents of the second report—the Evaluation Report—”clearly demonstrate that by that date, it was well established that there was no credible threat of an assassination plot, plan or attempt”.
The Prime Minister disclosed the details of the alleged plot publicly on November 24.
The Sunday Express reported this week that police had found no evidence to support the assassination plot claims.
Gibbs subsequently said there was not enough evidence to lay charges but the probe was ongoing.
Volney said the report in the possession of Rowley was “conjured out of limited information by a Second Division officer of the Police Service, opinionated only, unauthorised, doctored (and) unvetted”.
Volney said the investigation of the “conspirators” was “not a case of the heavy hand of the law being used to kill a messenger”.
He said Rowley’s decision to use the report “is hatched in political thuggery, debauchery and abuse of the power of office for the purpose of fuelling cheap politics and undermining public confidence in the Office of the Commissioner of Police, both of which are forbidden by the Standing Orders of the Police Service”.
He said the submitting of the report by Rowley was “nothing short of mischief in public office and an act itself of the very treachery that spawned it.”
