BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 13th December 2019) – Lawyers for Leon Natta-Nelson are prepared to indicate ‘Not that magistrate’ if the Prime Minister’s sister (Donna Harris) is the sitting magistrate when he is expected to appear before the court come next month after the matter regarding disciplinary charges brought against him by the Office of the Prime Minister was put off again this week for more than three times to date.
Natta-Nelson, who was officially introduced as the opposition St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) candidate in February 2019, is expected to contest the Constituency Seven seat going up against Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris who is the Minister of National Security.
Speaking to media workers outside the court on Wednesday 11th December 2019, lawyer Sylvester Anthony informed: “The matter has been adjourned until the 13th of January [2020]. The magistrate is in the middle of a preliminary inquiry which has decided to give priority quite properly so, so the matter has been adjourned. We will wait at this point to see which magistrate the matter will be set before and then we will make a decision at that time.”
“It was set today and it was set before Her Magistrate and we wanted to know if it would have been dealt with by that magistrate but we did not get to address that question because the matter has been adjourned…God’s willing we will deal with it at that point,” he stated.
On Wednesday 10th October 2018, Natta-Nelson was formally arrested and charged for failing to renew his Firearm Users License between February 01, 2018 and October 07, 2018.
The weapon, along with 25 rounds of ammunition, were confiscated by police two days before on Monday 8th October.
He subsequently received bail in the sum of $10,000 with two sureties and is slated to appear before the Basseterre Magistrate in December.
As understood, a letter dated 10th October 2018 to Natta-Nelson from the Human Resource Management Department in the Office of the Prime Minister stated that he broke the Public Service (Conduct and Ethics of Officers) Code as it had received “an adverse report of [his] involvement in political activity.”
Natta-Nelson received that letter on Wednesday 17th October 2018 which also revealed “that on or about the end of June 2018, you Leon Natta-Nelson, did introduce yourself to a resident of Christ Church Village, Christ Church, St. Kitts, as a candidate of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party running against the Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris for the next general election.”
Consequently, he suspended from work as a senior customs officer. However, in March 2019, Justice Eddy Ventose gave a ruling that Natta-Nelson, a public servant, was entitled to engage in political activity of such nature; a court victory which the SKNLP described as historic in the interest of all public servants.