(Jamaica Gleaner) Shanique Myrie, the Jamaican woman who took the Barbadian Government to court has revised a part of her statement provided in the case saying it was a mistake.
She recanted during cross-examination by Queens Counsel Roger Forde, the lead attorney for the Barbadian Government, as the as the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) began hearing her case in Kingston today.
Myrie had contended in the statement tendered as her testimony in the case, that following her ordeal, a female immigration officer was directed by a male counterpart to go and retrieve her luggage.
She said the woman then asked her the colour of the suitcase and the full name on it before she left to get the bag.
But under cross-examination, Myrie admitted that she went with the female immigration officer to collect the suitcase.
It happened in one of several attempts by Forde to discredit Myrie’s account of her encounter with immigration officers when she arrived in Barbados on March 14, 2011.
He also suggested to Myrie that she was not invited to Barbados by a woman identified as Paula Clarke, as was claimed in her statement.
The Jamaican woman is claiming that shortly after she was allowed entry to the country, immigration officers subjected her to a painful and embarrassing cavity search then kept her in a dark, filthy cell for several hours before she was deported to Jamaica.
One of Myrie’s attorneys, Nancy Anderson contended, in her opening statement, that the search violated Barbadian laws, it’s international obligations and the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
Another of her lawyers, Michelle Brown believes the case could be a landmark one in interpreting the rules of travel under the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
Forde will continue his cross-examination tomorrow.
The Jamaican leg of the trial is scheduled to run until Friday before it shifts to Barbados.