T&T police launches ‘PrisonGate’ investigation

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard has directed the acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service to “commence forthwith” a criminal investigation into “prison litigation matters” and the “the prospect of criminal wrongdoing.”

Gaspard said he received from the registrar of the Supreme Court the decision of Master Patricia Sobion-Awai in the matter of prisoner Jamal Sambury vs the Attorney General and transcript of the hearing of the procedural appeal. He said there was enough material to support an investigation.

The DPP’s decision is the latest sequel to the controversial PrisonGate issue out of a letter sent by former Solicitor General Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar requesting an investigation into circumstances “that may amount to inter alia to breaches of professional ethics” by certain attorneys involved in prison litigation which “may have the effect of perverting the course of justice in litigation against the state.”

The investigation comes following Master of the Court Sobion-Awai’s call for a probe into the circumstances surrounding how inmate Sambury was able to copy large portions of the witness statements of another prisoner Jamal Fortune who was awarded monetary compensation by the High Court recently.