Lawyer office search case for judicial review court June 9
THE Jamaican Bar Association’s accusation that a group of Jamaican and Canadian police breached the constitutional rights of attorneys Ernest Smith and Hugh Thompson, by searching their offices earlier this year will go before the judicial review court on June 9.
This was the consensus arrived at, yesterday, in a private court session, headed by Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe, and attended by lawyers representing both parties to the lawsuit. During the case management conference, agreement was reached on the direction in which to take the case in terms of a trial date, judge selection and location, among other issues.
As a result of yesterday’s agreement, Director of Public Prosecutions Kent Pantry’s application for a court declaration to clarify the issue was also pushed back, pending the outcome of the Bar Association’s accusation.
The controversial search of the law offices, which took place in January, represented an effort on the part of the police to find damning information on Robert Bidwell, a Jamaican whom Canadian law enforcement officials are seeking to extradite to answer drug charges.
Bidwell is in custody in Jamaica, awaiting extradition hearings. The Canadians say that Bidwell was involved in drug trafficking in that country and claim that he laundered the proceeds by investing in real estate and other business ventures in Jamaica, apparently using the names of family members and other persons.
The search of the attorneys’ offices sparked a raging controversy that saw the Jamaican Bar Association siding with Smith and Thompson in their contention that the Mutual Assistance (Criminal Matters) Act of 1995, which the government used to justify the search, was irrelevant in their circumstances.