By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Thursday 17th May 2018) – “Where is there anywhere in the transcripts that implicates myself or any member of the Labour administration? Is love they love my name so that is why they are calling my name all the time?”
So says the Opposition Leader and immediate former Prime Minister Dr. Denzil L. Douglas in dismissing rumours about him as he pointed to the timeline of information produced in documents used as evidence in a London high court which allegedly includes Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris being involved in a scandal involving billionaire businessman 44-year-old Peter Virdee.
He was at the time speaking on the Party-sponsored ‘Issues’ programme aired on Freedom FM yesterday (Wednesday).
Virdee is accused of bribing Caribbean officials as gathered from secretly recorded telephone conversations by authorities in Germany in a case being pursued by the National Crime Agency.
The UK Daily Mail media house revealed the news last Saturday (12th May) in an article bearing a sub-heading: ‘Property tycoon Peter Singh Virdee accused of bribing the politicians after secretly taped telephone calls emerged in High Court judgment issued last week’.
On Monday 14th May, the Opposition held an emergency press conference at the Koi Building locate at the Airport Road in calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris.
“Dr. Timothy Harris is mentioned in transcripts by office and by name, that is to say Prime Minister of St.Kitts and Nevis Dr. Timothy Harris. He is mentioned directly. He is mentioned unequivocally. There are no ifs, buts, no maybes Dr. Timothy Harris’ name was mentioned directly in these transcripts,” Dr. Douglas stated.
The Opposition Leader described the allegations as “serious” and “need to be responded to.”
“In any other civilized nation, the government would have to come clean and would have had to resign. In our country under Dr. Timothy Harris and his band of men who call themselves honest, the people are left in the dark and in the cold,” he noted.
While appearing on the ‘Issues’ programme on FreedomFM two days later in further addressing the issue, Dr. Douglas encouraged members of the public “not only to take my word for it but to read the decision for themselves.”
According to the Opposition Leader, Dr. Harris in his media released dated 13th May “is insisting on emphasing that the opening statement to the ruling references a period of time beginning in 2014 and uses this to completely disassociate his involvement and the involvement of any of his ministers from the damning actions described in the transcripts.”
He dismissed that he was in any discussion or negotiation with Virdee, information he highlighted at the Party’s press conference this week.
“I was at no time involved or engaged in any discussion or negotiation with Mr. Virdee regarding pursuing any project here in St.Kitts and Nevis. My last interaction with Virdee himself would have been many years ago as a follow-up to my travel to India back in 2012 but focusing on the fact that the transcript opens with the statement from 2014 onwards PVE [PV Energy Ltd.] was interested in entering into contract within the Caribbean states of Antigua and Barbuda and St.Kitts and Nevis is just a distraction being used by Harris to deflect blame for the damning evidence provided on the latter pages of the transcript.”
He continued: “Any reasonable observer who reads the above statement and the facts that follow would recognise that the judge was referring to a time in which solar energy project was begun in Antigua. The discussions with St.Kitts would have come later but because they were addressing both countries at once, the phraseology used established that the engagement began in 2014 with Antigua. As we can see from the transcripts, it is from the launch in Antigua that the minister then allegedly sought to broker and profit form a similar project being undertaken in St.Kitts and Nevis government not the opposition of St.Kitts and Nevis.”
Dr. Douglas said further: “The fact of the matter is no matter how much Dr. Harris tries distract, detract or deflect from his culpability in these allegations, the timeline established in the conversation intercepted on March 12th 2016 combined with the indisputable fact that his recorded trip to Dubai which included Marth 5th to March 12th 2016, places him and his delegation in London at the precise time indicate by Mr. Virdee in the transcript.”
Minister of Investment and Trade of Antigua and Barbuda Asot Michael whose name was mentioned in the scandal resigned on Tuesday 15th May.