Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has added his voice to an ongoing controversy over remarks made by National Security Minister, Rayburn Blackmoore, in relation to the granting of bail to double murder-accused Jonathan Lehrer.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Skerrit said Blackmoore was within his right to comment on the matter and he doesn’t understand what the hoopla is all about.
“I really don’t see what is the big hoopla,” he said. The controversy began in late November when the court opened bail for Lehrer. Blackmoore swiftly condemned the move saying the state “is totally opposed to the granting of bail” to Lehrer.
Soon after that, the Dominica Bar Association (DBA) jumped in saying that it was concerned over the minister’s statement and called on public officials to refrain from questioning the independence of the judiciary. The DBA was supported by the Organization of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations (OCCBA), which also expressed concerns describing Blackmoore’s statement as “most unfortunate and disturbing.”
In his Friday press conference, Skerrit said Blackmoore was simply “highlighting the position of the prosecutors, the state prosecutors who opposed bail before the high court.”
“I really don’t see, in all fairness to Mr Blackmoore, I really don’t see why was there a need for the bar association or this regional grouping to issue a statement,” he remarked. “I mean, anybody in the society has a right to express any view or concern in regards to the operation of any court….as always you have to do so respectfully and within reason.”
According to the Prime Minister, there have been people in Dominica who said that the government was in collusion with Lehrer and it was going to interfere in the court proceedings to allow him to go free.
“I didn’t hear anybody say that the government couldn’t interfere with the court,” he stated. “I didn’t hear the bar association say that this could not happen, this cannot happen but the minister expressing a particular view saying he is opposed and the government is opposed because the government, the state, the executive is represented by the Director of Public Prosecutions and the special prosecutor who was brought in to prosecute the case on the behalf of the state. So it wasn’t a situation where Mr Blackmoore is expressing a view [divergent] to what the state prosecutors were saying.”
He added, “And if this is a matter that has occupied the minds of the general public, the public has a particular interest in this because of the extenuating circumstances of this case, because of all the negative PR that we received externally and locally from this matter, I don’t see why we should be raising alarms by the content of Mr Blackmoore’s statement.”
However, Skerrit did depart from Blackmoore’s approach to the entire matter saying Blackmoore should not have responded to different groups that had to say something to say about it.
“That’s the only departure,” he said. “You made a statement and you finish with that. I would not respond to the bar association, I would not respond to this regional grouping or anybody else. A statement was made and that’s it.”
He also said that in his opinion, Blackmoore did not impute any motive nor was he disrespectful to anyone. “I just don’t agree with the back-and-forth,” Skerrit remarked.
All of you who are critical of Blackmore, are you in favor of bail being granted to Lehrer? In the event that he is granted bail what do you think will happen next ? l suspect that some of you would like Lehrer to receive bail so that the government will be blamed in the event he Lehrer does not show up for his case.
Skerrit and Blackmoore are trying to play smoke and mirrors, good cop bad cop! Of course you and your Labour party government are in collusion with Lehrer. He is your passport agent, your lawyer is representing him, your lawyer made the bail application for him. Then you send Blackmoore to give some pretentious nonsense statement about being against the bail application. Skerrit who do you all think you are fooling? It’s getting too hot for Blackmoore so here you come. Normally you would be speaking for very ministry and every minister anyway, they are just your puppets! You have single handedly destroyed Dominica’s good name and good international reputation. You are just like those despotic foolish leaders like bus driver Maduro that you so admire. Dominica needs a clean slate from Labour party now!
A statement was made and thats it .Dominicans no democracy in that strait up dictator
Did any rational person expect better from this nefarious, villainous scalawag? Mr. Blackmoore cannot make statements to the press before getting the approval of his superior.
In this organisation, loosely called a government, the blind leads the blind. In fact, the present arrangement in government can be likened to a soldier crab leading swarm of brainless, spineless jellyfish.
I want the two accused of this most ghastly crime, when found guilty, to live a long life in a prison cell where rats, bedbugs and mosquitoes are their only companions. However, I have a premonition that there two will go free because of the colossal incompetence of what we have masquerading as a police force.
Skerrit is a cunning individual who is extremely stupid and moronic. He believes that everyone sees him as his labour party adulators, whom he curses and insults, but they must clap at the denegration.👏👏👏👏 Blackmore did not make any statement without the blessings of Skerrit. Blackmore is Skerrit’s little puppet. Skerrit can humiliate the pinhead
whenever he wants. Skerrit knew in advance everything that Blackmore stuttered.. The inveterate liar, (Skerrit), always comes at the back end of things expecting to get praises from the people. Skerrit you and Blackmore should stay in you all lane. A lane littered with thievery and ‘borbol’. Let the criminal justice system do its work. Are you all trying to compromise it even more than it has already been?
What an idiot!!