The main opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) has leveled a series of charges against the police and the ruling administration days after a new twist emerged in an ongoing fraud investigation that implicates some of its senior members.
The ALP said the authorities are attempting a political lynching as part of the “political witch-hunt” that began seven years ago.
Former Prime Minister and ALP Leader Lester Bird, and one-time Finance Minister Asot Michael were identified as persons of interest in the multi-million dollar fraud case involving the Japan-based Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co Ltd (IHI).
Last week, Guyanese attorney Sanjeev Datadin was appointed as a special constable to assist the investigations.
The ALP Central Executive yesterday condemned the police statement that it said, defamed some of its officials and supporters, describing it as another chapter in the political harassment of the party leadership.
The party said the statement, “ignored all correct police procedures and court rules and systematically violated every rule of common decency and the rule of law by naming several persons who have not been charged with a single offense in a seven-year-old investigation into the settlement of a debt to Japanese company IHI.”
“This entire investigation into the IHI debt settlement matter, which took place 15 years ago, has been a deliberate strategy of the UPP regime to undermine and smear members of the Labour party,” the ALP charged.
In reference to the appointment of the Guyanese attorney, the ALP said: “This is complete disregard of the provisions of the law governing special constables and the constitutional office of the DPP. This special constable will now be subject to orders of other officers in the Force.
“It is now clear to members of the Central Executive of the Antigua Labour Party that this is no Police investigation; it is a politically-controlled event on which millions of dollars of tax paper’s money have been spent on an abandoned Commission of Inquiry, an abandoned civil suit in Miami, the mock trial in 2009, the dormant civil suits in Antigua, a multi-million dollar report done five years ago by a forensic auditor, and now a special constable. This is an outrageous and indecent abuse of power,” the opposition party added.
(Source http://www.caribbean360.com/index.php/news/antigua_news/547090.html#axzz1izs17B2i)
