Judicial review of ruling in Ruel Reid case set for May
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Former Education Minister Ruel Reid and former Caribbean Maritime University President Fritz Pinnock, as well as their three co-accused, are to return to court June 12, pending the outcome of a judicial review.
The judicial review – to be held before three judges – was set for May 7 and 8 when the accused appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Monday.
Reid, Pinnock, Reid’s wife Sharen, their daughter Sharelle, and Jamaica Labour Party Councillor for the Brown’s Town Division Kim Brown Lawrence, are implicated in a multimillion-dollar fraud case.
The Supreme Court is to review a court ruling that Reid and his co-accused have a case to answer over their alleged corrupt actions.
Last year February, Chief Parish Judge Chester Crooks ruled that the accused had a case to answer.
Crooks’ ruling was due to a preliminary objection raised by Reid and Pinnock on the basis that the charges against them should be nullified as the Financial Investigations Division (FID), the investigative body that had brought the charges, had no authority in law to arrest or charge them.
Pinnock and Reid were first arrested in October 2019 under charges of defrauding the Ministry of Education and the Caribbean Maritime University of millions of dollars.
-Candice Haughton