Phillips: PM knew about 'Dudus' request from Oct '07

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DR Peter Phillips, the Opposition parliamentarian who blew the whistle on the now infamous Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair that has shaken the Government, yesterday said Prime Minister Bruce Golding was briefed on the pending indictment and extradition of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke in October 2007, one month after taking office.

"As far back as October 2007, the prime minister was briefed that an extradition request was to come," Phillips told reporters and editors at the weekly Observer Monday Exchange.

"I had been briefed before I demitted office that this investigation was close to the point of conclusion, and I know for a fact that the prime minister was briefed in October '07. As it turns out, if you look at the indictment, there was a superseding indictment that came after the original one was issued," said Phillips who was national security minister at the time his People's National Party lost the September 2007 general election to the Jamaica Labour Party.

According to Phillips, on the basis of the information contained in the indictment, the police prepared an arrest plan, as had been done for all other extradition requests.

"I had been aware that the security forces, in view of all the circumstances, prepared an arrest plan, as had been done with all the other extraditions coming before, with the intention of minimising conflict, loss of life, damage to the innocent and all the rest of it," he said, adding that the plan for Coke was prepared during the tenure of Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin as commissioner of police.

Lewin, who later resigned, created a stir earlier this year when he said information on the extradition that he presented to National Security Minister Dwight Nelson was communicated to Coke within 15 minutes after they spoke.

According to Lewin, Coke, who had been under surveillance, made his way into his former stronghold of Tivoli Gardens where he battened down.

The gun battle resulted in the deaths of 73 persons, among them a soldier.

According to Phillips, the mayhem and loss of lives could have been prevented if the Government had handled the extradition request properly.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the process of serving the warrant, and having the matter dealt with in accordance with law, could have been done differently if it had been approached correctly and honourably from the very outset," he said.

In March this year, Phillips raised in Parliament questions about the involvement of the Government with the US law firm Manatt in relation to treaty matters.

At the time, Golding denied that the Government had retained the firm.

However, after a Foreign Agents Registration Act filing by the law firm and tremendous public pressure for him to resign, Golding recanted, stating that he sanctioned the contact with Manatt in his capacity as JLP leader and not as head of the Government.

It also emerged that Manatt was asked to lobby the US Government in the Coke extradition issue.

However, e-mails between Manatt and Jamaican Government officials published Sunday by The Gleaner indicated that the firm was working on behalf of the Government.

Yesterday, Phillips reiterated his call for a commission of inquiry into the matter, saying senior government officials lied to the country.

"It (e-mails) confirmed the view that contrary to what has been said before, the prime minister and other high officials of government were intimately involved in this, and that the contract was being carried out by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips on behalf of the Government of Jamaica," Phillips said.

"We had been led to believe otherwise. It also brought into question the issues of the timetable that had been advanced before," said Phillips. "The solicitor general proclaimed that he had a chance meeting sometime in November or December, but these exchanges are taking place in September. It also brings into question specifically the claim of the attorney general that she only knew of the existence of this entity when I brought it to Parliament in March, and there is at least in the e-mail exchanges the explicit reference to the need to consult with the attorney general and the prime minister well before last year, in fact in '09."