AG criticises opposition over calls for MOU court ruling disclosure
Published:Thursday | October 31, 2019 | 1:45 PM
Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte is questioning the motive of the Opposition in its call for the government to make public the Supreme Court ruling on the electronic surveillance memoranda of understanding between Jamaica and the United States.
The MOUs, which were signed in 2004 by former security minister Dr Peter Phillips, allowed for the eavesdropping on telephone calls to disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal operations.
The MOU was used by the United States to go after Jamaican criminals including convicted drug kingpin Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke
Dr Horace Chang, the national security minister, revealed in the House of Representatives on Tuesday that the Supreme Court, in 2018, found that the MOUs, were unconstitutional, describing it as “unsatisfactory and inadequate”.
READ: Tapia defends US-Ja security ties
Chang did not offer any details of the court matter, which, The Gleaner understands, may have been heard privately in chambers because of national-security sensitivity.
“I have not seen any judgment, and I know of no instance where anything could be determined to be unconstitutional in chambers. That would be a matter for the Constitutional Court. So either people are just speaking loosely or there is some other mystery that needs to be resolved,” said Phillips, the opposition leader, in reacting to the news.
READ: Opposition demands proof of MOU court ruling
And Opposition Spokesman on National Security, Fitz Jackson, in a statement yesterday, said legal research and enquiries at the court on Tuesday proved futile in finding any such ruling, accusing Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Chang of misleading the House.
Addressing the issues raised by the opposition, Malahoo Forte accused the opposition of “a calculated attempt to create suspicion & distrust about matters of law enforcement & security cooperation.”
“Now wonder why they want secret & confidential national security matters to be blown open in public. Which criminal elements do they want to know details, to compromise security/law enforcement operations?” the attorney general tweeted today.
Why is there such a calculated attempt to create suspicion & distrust about matters of law enforcement & security cooperation? Could it be that is precisely because so many rely on illicit and immoral gains and support, in various spheres, at all levels of the society?
— MP MalahooForte QC (@MalahooForteQC) October 31, 2019
The existence of the MOUs became public knowledge during the 2011 commission of enquiry into the Government’s handling of the United States’ extradition request for Christopher “Dudus” Coke to answer drug-trafficking and gunrunning charges.
The US relied on wiretap information as evidence in the affidavits for Coke’s extradition, but the Government argued that the wiretap evidence on which the US relied was illegally obtained in Jamaica.
The US insisted that it acted legally.
The issue resulted in a nine-month stand-off that strained relations between Kingston and Washington, and which led to bloody firefights in the capital between the security forces and an army of gunmen loyal to Coke.
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