Knight blasts commissioners
Published:Wednesday | June 15, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter
K.D. Knight, lead attorney for the People's National Party (PNP) at the Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry, yesterday chose strong adjectives in venting his disgust at the findings of the Emil George-led report into the handling of the extradition request for Christopher Coke.
Fielding questions from journalists at the entrance to Gordon House yesterday, Knight, a member of the Upper House, blasted the commissioners, calling the findings of the report a "shameful cover-up".
Knight indicated that there was very little consideration for the public in putting together the Manatt report.
"These three commissioners were well paid and their duty was to protect the public, not to protect politicians."
He argued that the commissioners ignored the public interest and "soft-soaped the whole situation and make the politicians appear as if, 'Oh well, an error of judgement.'"
Commenting on a recommendation for the commissioners to be given the powers of a Supreme Court judge for the purpose of being able to cite for contempt, Knight said the Manatt commissioners "ought not to have had the powers of a justice of the peace" because of how they handled the proceedings.
"Several times we had to assist them, they never recalled one question that was asked, they seemed to have been at sea at times, and in terms of procedures, clearly out of their depth," the lead PNP attorney asserted.
Responding to the commissioners' finding that there was no misconduct on the part of persons who appeared before the enquiry, but errors of judgement, Knight argued that the latter could have been very serious.
He said the evidence revealed far more than errors of judgement, insisting that the evidence showed that "certain deliberate actions were taken in order to delay the extradition of Mr Coke".