DPP: Gaps in Hart probe

DPP Roger Gaspard told Newsday yesterday he met with officers of the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau (ACIB) last Friday on several high profile matters, including the Hart investigation.

Gaspard said, “There is a particular loophole in the investigation which needs to be addressed if this investigation is to continue. The police presented some documents which I reviewed, and the officers are to get back to me soon. There may not be a legal loophole, but rather an evidentiary loophole. The police need to continue their investigations so as to plug any gap that might exist.”

Gaspard declined to disclose what was the loophole and was unsure when he would next meet with the police on this matter. He did reveal that he also gave instructions on the probe involving allegations made by Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr.

“We did discuss other matters, some of them do not involve Udecott. One of those matters was the investigation into certain allegations made by Yasin Abu Bakr against the Prime Minister.”

Last Friday during a press briefing at the Police Administration Building, Acting Police Commissioner James Philbert said the police had obtained documents and met with Gaspard in relation to their authentication. He said the police was in the process of interpreting the documents. The DPP had advised Philbert to investigate the claims of links between Hart, his wife Sherrine and directors of Sunway Caribbean Construction Ltd since March 4.

Also last Friday, attorney Timothy Hamel-Smith, a senior member of the Congress of the People (COP) said documents obtained from Malaysia which showed a link between Sherrine Hart and two directors of Sunway, which was awarded the contract to build the Ministry of Legal Affairs Tower, were authenticated by the Consular Division of the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The documents, birth and marriage certificates, were presented to the police and the DPP for an investigation into alleged perjury.

Sources revealed that prior to being transferred out of the ACIB, Snr Supt Terry Young, the former head of that unit, had recommended that a charge of perjury be laid against the former Udecott official.

During the Uff Commission of Inquiry, Hart denied that he knew the two directors of Sunway.

However, the COP applied to a law firm in Malaysia, Skrine, for birth and marriage certificates which show family ties between Sherrine Hart and the two directors of Sunway. Sources said yesterday the police have received confirmation from Malaysia that the documents given to them by the COP were authentic.

According to the documents secured by the COP, last Friday, the birth certificates for Sherrine Hart (under her maiden name of Lee Soh Wah) and her sister Lee Soeh Ching bear a stamp reading, “This is to certify that the signature that appears on this document/certificate/marriage certificate/birth certificate is that of the “Registrar of Birth and Deaths Malaysia.”

The documents bear a stamp of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia and the name of Aliman MD Saad, Executive Officer of the Consular Division of the Ministry. The stamps are dated May 14, 2010. Another document, a marriage certificate between Lee Soeh Ching and Ng Chin Poh, listing both as Buddhists, is also similarly stamped. However the date of that stamp is April 22, 2010. Ng Chin Poh was one of the two Sunway directors.