The Congress of the People (COP) told reporters Friday there is a plot to silence the opposition's assault on Calder Hart and the alleged corruption at UDeCOTT.The party's spokesman, Vernon de Lima, said it has been reliably informed that the former chairman of UDeCOTT, Calder Hart, will be returning to Trinidad on Monday and will be charged with perjury.
He said Hart's return would be the Manning Government’s ’limp’ response to one of the central issues which caused its collapse. An d he suggested that Hart could face other more serious charges under the Anti-Corruption laws including criminal conspiracy and fraud.
The party said it has already been decided that bail will be set at $1.5 million dollars and that following the immediate release of Hart on bail his lawyers will seek an order to prevent any further mention of Hart and UDeCOTT on the political platform.
The order, he said, would effectively muzzle the media as well.
De Lima sad the perjury charge is the least of all the possible charges that could have been laid, noting that it is part of a conspiracy involving the Manning administration to take the UDeCOTT issue off the national agenda during the election campaign.
He also expressed concern over the transfer of the chief investigating officer in the UDeCOTT matter. Senior Superintendent Terry Young has been promoted to head the Guard and Emergency Branch (GEB) with immediate effect.
Read the story: Top COP investigating Calder Hart transferred
De Lima said trying to get a gag order from the court would violate "the freedom of the population, including our press to discuss, debate, take a position or form an opinion on the issue," which he said is central to "the great national debate in which we are now engaged."
He said if a judge grants the application it would mean that "no one in Trinidad and Tobago will be able to say anything about Hart."
The COP official called the development "surreptitious complicity between Calder Hart and the Government" to end discussion on this issue."
COP lawyers went directly to Malaysian authorities earlier this year to get documents that made the connection of the family link between Hart and top officials CH Development, the company which won a $368 million contract while Hart was head of UDeCOTT.
COP has applied to the Malaysian Registrar of Births and Deaths for a certificate of authentication of the relevant birth and marriage certificates and it expects to have the information next week.
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