August 2009 Archives

[hat tip to Corruption Free Anguilla]

The Turks and Caicos Islands, a British Overseas Territory remnant of the British Empire, have been brought under direct British Government rule, again, this time because of property development scandals involving the local politicians and civil servants.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office press release:

A major step in clean up of public life in Turks and Caicos (14/08/2009)

[...]

FCO Minister, Chris Bryant, instructed the Governor of the Islands to bring into force an Order suspending ministerial government and the House of Assembly - among the main recommendations of Sir Robin Auld's Commission of Inquiry which was set up to look into possible corruption or other serious dishonesty by elected members of the legislature and which reported on 31 May.

Chris Bryant said:

"I welcome the decision on 12 August in the Court of Appeal to dismiss the appeal in the legal challenge to our proposed action to tackle corruption in the Turks and Caicos Islands. After careful consideration, I have instructed the Governor to bring into force today an Order in Council which will suspend ministerial government and the House of Assembly for a period of up to two years, to allow the Governor to put the Islands' affairs back in good order. The Order also suspends the constitutional right to trial by jury in the Turks and Caicos Islands which would provide the possibility in future of having trials by judge alone in the TCI Supreme Court in appropriate cases.

[...]

Gordon Wetherell, the Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands said:

"With immediate effect, Ministerial government and the House of Assembly are suspended meaning that Cabinet will no longer exist and the House of Assembly is dissolved and Members' seats are vacated. The constitutional right to trial by jury is also suspended with immediate effect.

There are also links to an unfriendly, re-censored / re-redacted, no text copy and paste, image only Adobe (.pdf) version of the final report of among the main recommendations of Sir Robin Auld's Commission of Inquiry into the corruption.

However, you may prefer to read the full, unredacted version published by WikiLeakS.org, who simply took the incompetently censored Adobe (.pdf) version which was published in July, and copied the blacked out text to another editor, to reveal the censored text underneath.

See: Turks and Caicos Islands Commission of Inquiry into grand corruption, Final Report, unredacted, 18 Jul 2009

The Labour government and Foreign & Commonwealth Office Minister Chris Bryant, who has been involved in public scandals himself, should be asked to explain why, exactly,

The constitutional right to trial by jury is also suspended with immediate effect

Even if there is a suspicion that there will be jury tampering, when the allegedly corrupt handful of politicians, civil servants and property developers are brought to trial, this is a >strong>suspension of everyone's right to a trial by jury in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

How and why is that proportionate or just ?

Even the Diplock Courts set up in Northern Ireland, at the height of the terrorist Troubles, did not suspend jury trials for everyone, only in certain scheduled terrorism related cases.

Why do Labour politicians hate trial by jury so much ?

Why did the High Court Judges Lord Justice Carnwath and the Honourable Mr. Justice Mitting not stand up for the right to trial by jury, in the hearing brought by Michael Misick, the former Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands ?

See BAILII: Misick, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs [2009] EWHC 1039 (Admin) (01 May 2009)

Why have the BBC and The Guardian and the Press Association all decided not to mention this unnecessary suspension of trial by jury, in addition to the removal of the allegedly corrupt politicians ?

Is this the sort of disproportionate diktat that we can expect here in the United Kingdom, if the Government invokes their Emergency enabling powers Civil Contingencies Act 2004 ?

Who is investigating the sleaze and corruption of British politicians and civil servants, and the revolving door whereby Ministers and senior Civil Servants magically end up working for companies or lobbyists for companies, which stand to gain large government contracts, from the Departments which they were recently in charge of ? The sums of money involved make the allegedly corrupt Turks and Caicos Islands deals look like small change.

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