Lightbourne stays

Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter

GOVERNMENT SENATORS yesterday lined up behind Attorney General and Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne as they vigorously defended her with words and their votes to defeat a motion by an opposition senator aimed at ousting her.

In a fiery and at times caustic seven-hour debate, opposition senators relentlessly hammered the justice minister for her handling of the extradition request for alleged drug baron Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, who is now before the United States courts on trial.

Coke has been accused by the US government for trafficking in illegal drugs and firearms.

In a no-holds-barred debate, the opposition members were blunt in demanding the resignation of Lightbourne, as they blamed her for the debacle which unfolded from the nine-month delay in signing the extradition request.

In her defence, Lightbourne said her subsequent decision to sign the request was based on what she described as "public- interest concerns".

"It was clear that the public- interest concerns had become paramount and compelling and that this required exercising my discretion so as to at least diminish and/or allay those concerns," Lightbourne contended.

The justice minister also stoutly defended her earlier position not to sign the request due to an insistence that the rule of law must be followed.

illegal use of 'intercept'

"...The issue turned upon the improper/illegal use of 'intercept' evidence to support the request, and any precedent established would not only affect Mr Coke, but any other Jamaica citizen who found himself in similar circumstances," she said.

Opposition Senator K.D. Knight, a former justice minister, accused the Ministry of Justice of embarking on a scheme to prevent the extradition of Coke.

"There was an attempt to frustrate the justice system," Knight charged.

The opposition senators called for a commission of enquiry into the extradition affair as well as the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips saga.