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Trafigura affair: DPP's office defends request for PNP members to testify

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on Wednesday defended the ruling by Supreme Court judge Lennox Campbell, in the Trafigura matter.
   
Justice Campbell ruled that Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller and four  other People's National Party (PNP) functionaries, should answer questions in open court about the $30 million Trafigura donation to the PNP.
   
The DPP is the designated Central Authority for the Dutch authorities investigating Trafigura.
 
The Appeal Court is hearing legal arguments whether Mrs Simpson Miller; PNP Chairman Robert Pickersgill; Phillip Paulwell; Colin Campbell; and Norton Hinds, should answer questions in open court about the 2006 Trafigura donation to the party.
   
On Tuesday, lead attorney K.D Knight declared that the party leader and the other four persons will not be answering questions from Dutch investigators neither in public nor private.
     
Mr. Knight said there is no law which gives the judge the discretion to order the five PNP functionaries to give statements in the glare of the public.
   
In her rebuttal on Wednesday, Deputy DPP Andrea Martin Swaby urged the Appeal Court panel to give serious consideration to the reasons set out by Justice Campbell for his decision.
   
Justice Campbell argued that the matter was of such public interest that it should be ventilated in public.
   
But throughout Wednesday's hearing, members of the Appeal Court panel asked Mrs Martin Swaby to explain to them what was the primary objective to have the matter heard in public.
   
Mrs Martin Swaby argued that the attempt to question Mrs Simpson and members of her party, was more than collecting statements.
   
The hearing is to be completed on Thursday.



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