Law Council writes President, PM on Inquiry

THERE are implications arising out of last Wednesday’s sitting of the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco airport development project which go far beyond the Inquiry.

That is the view of the Council of the Law Association, which has written President George Maxwell Richards. The letter was copied to both Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Attorney General Glenda Morean-Phillips. Honorary Secretary of the Council, Hendrickson Seunath SC,  told Newsday the contents of the letter were confidential. He did not wish to say if the letter merely expressed concern or called for the Inquiry to end. Told that the Inquiry ended yesterday as was expected, Seunath said the Council hoped that whatever the Commissioners did and whatever report produced would be of some assistance to the country. He however emphasised that the Council has not been pleased with the way the Inquiry was being conducted. The Inquiry ended yesterday.

A release from the Council said members at their emergency meeting on Thursday “gave full and mature considerations” to what occurred at the Inquiry on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. Members also viewed a videotape of the proceedings. The Council said it was “gravely concerned about a number of matters relating to what it saw and heard.”  The specific matters related to the attack on the Director of Public Prosecutions, the late Justice Richard Crane, the impact on the Judiciary and the Caribbean Court of Justice, as well as the impact on the Inquiry itself. The Council said it did not write the Commission to express its views because it did not intend to be engaged in any “unpleasant and unseemly debate with the Commission.” At the sittings on Wednesday, Chairman of the Inquiry Clinton Bernard alleged that former Justice Crane was a drunkard. He also criticised DPP Geoffrey Henderson.