Kamla slams AG, says he's in contempt of court

Siparia MP and former Attorney General Kamla Persad-Bissessar has slammed Attorney General John Jeremie for statements he made in the House of representatives Monday dismissing a judge's order to investigate Prime Minister in connection with a controversial affidavit sworn by Jamat al-Muslimeen leader Abu Bakr.

The court of appeal in Trinidad and the Privy Council both rejected the affidavit as being irrelevant to a case brought by Bakr regarding the non-payment of more than $30 million in compensation to the state.

However the Privy Council ruling made it clear that if there was a private arrangement between Manning and Bakr it would be a violation of the country's corruption laws.

Last Friday, Justice Rajendra Narine ordered the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the acting Commissioner of Police to conduct an investgation. Narine was hearing the matter of Bakr's compensation and also ordered that 11 properties owned by Bakr be auctioned to settle the debt.

But he said the matter of the affidavit was a serious one and needed a thorough investigation.

Read the story: Judge orders probe of PM Manning

In the House Monday Jeremie said no one is going to investigate the matter and suggested that the judge was out of line in asking for the criminal investigation since there is no truth in Bakr's allegations.

Read the story: No probe of Manning

Persad-Bissessar reacted by saying she is appalled by Jeremie's assertion and called his action contempt of court.

"It is not for the honourable Attorney General to judge and given his track record of judgment, we have very serious concerns with anything he pronounces on," she told the Parliament. Persad-Bissessar said Jeremie had abused parliamentary privilege.

But House Speaker Barry Sinanan disagreed, advising the MP that if Jeremie had done that he would have stopped him.

But the former Attorney General was not silenced. "He came to the Parliament and under the cloak of parliamentary privilege and the words he spoke, if they were spoken outside, he would have been guilty of contempt of court and he would have had to go to jail," Persad-Bissessar declared.

She pointed out that no one is allowed to make negative comments about a judgment given in court.

In the case before the House, she said, Jeremie's statement amounted to an attack on a judge of the Supreme Court.

"Because it (the affadavit) is scandalous and irrelevant doesn't mean that it is not true," Persad-Bissessar shot said. She said the court ruled that Bakr's affidavit was "irrelevant" to his case.

"At no point in time has the court or anyone said that the statements of Bakr were not true," she said.

Persad-Bissessar said the allegations in the affidavit matched those that had been made by the UNC - that Muslimeen power was used to intimidate, frighten and harass voters in the marginal seats so that the PNM would win the 2002 elections.

"I am sure that the citizens of this country are very distressed to think that there may be possible criminal conduct on the part of the Prime Minister," she said.

She reiterated her party's call for an independent investigation. Persad-Bissessar was the first person to call for an investigation. And last week her party reiterated that call.