Tension At Trafigura Hearing … Adjourned Indefinitely Pending Appeal

There was ten­sion at the Trafigura hear­ing this morn­ing as Queen’s Counsel K.D. Knight, the attor­ney for People’s National Party (PNP) President Portia Simpson Miller, react­ed to an instruc­tion by Justice Lennox Campbell before the mat­ter was adjourned indefinitely.

“Don’t shout at me, because I can shout as well,” Knight told jus­tice Campbell.

Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Andrea Martin Swaby had got up to address the court when Knight inter­ject­ed prompt­ing Campbell to tell him not to inter­rupt the crown coun­sel. Simpson Miller, PNP chair­man Robert Pickersgill, Region Three chair­man Phillip Paulwell, for­mer PNP gen­er­al sec­re­tary Colin Campbell and busi­ness­man Norton Hinds, appeared in court after being sub­poe­naed by Justice Campbell to answer to ques­tions under oath about a $31 mil­lion to the par­ty by Dutch oil trad­ing firm Trafigura Beheer. However, the hear­ing could not pro­ceed this morn­ing because of a rul­ing by the Appeal Court last Friday stay­ing the mat­ter until an appeal is heard as to whether the PNP func­tionar­ies should be ques­tioned in open court.

On Friday, the Appeal Court also instruct­ed that the court reg­is­trar con­sult with the rel­e­vant par­ties to set a date for the appeal to be heard. This morn­ing Campbell also asked Knight to agree on a date. “I am not set­ting any dates,” Knight respond­ed to Justice Campbell. In the mean­time, the hear­ing has been adjourned indef­i­nite­ly pend­ing the hear­ing of the appeal.

In November 2011, Campbell had ruled that Simpson Miller and the oth­er PNP func­tionar­ies should answer ques­tions from the Dutch author­i­ties under oath in open court.However, the PNP lawyers appealed against the rul­ing. Last week, the Director of Public Prosecutions filed an appli­ca­tion seek­ing to have the appeal struck out claim­ing that since November 2011, the PNP lawyers have done noth­ing to advance the mat­ter. Assistant DPP Swaby told the Appeal Court that the PNP lawyers were await­ing the tran­script of the hear­ing, which had been at the Supreme Court since December 2011.

However, Knight said he was nev­er informed. He also said the legal team had not yet received in writ­ing, Campbell’s rea­sons for his rul­ing that the PNP func­tionar­ies should answer in open court ques­tions about the $31 mil­lion Trafigura dona­tion. http://​jamaica​-glean​er​.com/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​/​n​e​w​s​/​2​0​1​6​0​6​0​6​/​t​e​n​s​i​o​n​-​t​r​a​f​i​g​u​r​a​-​h​e​a​r​i​n​g​-​a​d​j​o​u​r​n​e​d​-​i​n​d​e​f​i​n​i​t​e​l​y​-​p​e​n​d​i​n​g​-​a​p​p​e​a​l​#​.​V​1​W​u​B​_​b​B​9​P​M​.​f​a​c​e​b​ook