AG will cooperate with police; slams Guardian for "misleading and false" headline

AG Anand Ramlogan

Attorney General Anand Ramlogan issued a media release Friday condemning what he called "the mischievous, misleading and false headline" in Friday's Guardian newspaper. He said the story headlined "AG has no trust in cops" contains no quote from the AG that reflects the message in the headline.

Ramlogan said, "The story that follows on page 3 is equally erroneous. The opening paragraph states: "Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mervyn Richardson yesterday described as unfortunate Attorney General Anand Ramlogan's statement that he did not trust the police to treat with his personal devices with confidentiality in the Section 34 e-mail probe." DCP Richardson was clearly lured into the trap of commenting on a statement that was falsely attributed to me."The AG said, "No such statement was uttered by the AG during the live televised Post Cabinet media conference. This is why that none of the other newspapers carried such a headline, story, or quote. 

"It is unethical and irresponsible for a newspaper to solicit comments and reactions to a statement that was never made in circumstances where it would have been very easy to verify its accuracy."

Ramlogan noted that Richardson said on June 4 that "foreign help was on the way" to assist with the investigation of the email matter. "This announcement meant that the police had hired foreign IT experts to assist the investigation," he said.

The release stated, "What the AG did was to explain the need for the police to have a clearly defined protocol and procedure to safeguard the integrity of the information on his devices. This is to ensure the integrity of the information on his devices are not compromised, interfered or tampered with after the police takes possession.

"Such procedural guidelines are quite normal and consistent with international best practice in most countries. The police provides the relevant information ("emails") to the IT expert who would in turn examine the device based on the relevant issues that are the subject matter of the police investigation. The IT expert will then pass the results of his examination onto the police who may then conduct further inquiries if necessary and where appropriate."

Ramlogan said his lawyers are awaiting clarification from the police on the procedure and protocols they intend to adopt. 

The release added, "He (the AG) remains confident that a reasonable compromise will be reached which will facilitate a thorough inspection of his devices by qualified IT experts selected by the Police Service. 

"The AG wishes to reaffirm that he has no objection whatsoever to his devices being inspected as part of this investigation because he is determined to have the perpetrator of this political fraud exposed, charged and prosecuted. He pledges his full cooperation and support for this investigation."