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Portia Simpson Miller and several of her colleagues in the governing People's National Party (PNP) have lost a significant court battle in the long-running Trafigura case.
The Constitutional Court on Friday ruled that there are no constitutional grounds that would prevent Mrs. Simpson Miller, PNP Chairman Robert Pickersgill, Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell, former MP, Colin Campbell, and businessman Norton Hinds, answering questions from Dutch investigators under oath in open court in the Trafigura case.
This means that the attempts to have the matter returned to chambers for the remainder of the proceedings to be heard in private have failed.
The last PNP administration was rocked by revelations in late 2006 that the party, while in government, had accepted financial donations from Trafigura Baheer, a Dutch company trading a variety of commodieties, including oil.
This raised questions regarding possible undue inflence being exerted by the company which was seeking to do business with the Government of Jamaica at the time of the donation.
The fall-out from the Trafigura scandal was widely regarded as a contributory factor in the PNP's loss in the September, 2007 general election, which ushered in a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government for the first time in 18 years.
That JLP government, led for most of its time in office, by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, enacted new legislation to facilitate the Dutch involvement in the subsequent investigation of the Trafigura affair.
The Golding administration, in turn, quickly lost popularity because of another scandal -related to the American demand for the extradition of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke and the attempts to avert the extradition. Following Golding's resignation and the calling of early elections on December 29, 2011, the JLP was defeated and this saw the return of the PNP to government, with Simpson Miller again at the helm as Prime Minister.
All this time, the Trafigura investigation was being pursued by the Dutch authorities and has remained a headache for the PNP
The Constitutional Court on Friday ruled that there are no constitutional grounds that would prevent Mrs. Simpson Miller, PNP Chairman Robert Pickersgill, Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell, former MP, Colin Campbell, and businessman Norton Hinds, answering questions from Dutch investigators under oath in open court in the Trafigura case.
This means that the attempts to have the matter returned to chambers for the remainder of the proceedings to be heard in private have failed.
The last PNP administration was rocked by revelations in late 2006 that the party, while in government, had accepted financial donations from Trafigura Baheer, a Dutch company trading a variety of commodieties, including oil.
This raised questions regarding possible undue inflence being exerted by the company which was seeking to do business with the Government of Jamaica at the time of the donation.
The fall-out from the Trafigura scandal was widely regarded as a contributory factor in the PNP's loss in the September, 2007 general election, which ushered in a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government for the first time in 18 years.
That JLP government, led for most of its time in office, by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, enacted new legislation to facilitate the Dutch involvement in the subsequent investigation of the Trafigura affair.
The Golding administration, in turn, quickly lost popularity because of another scandal -related to the American demand for the extradition of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke and the attempts to avert the extradition. Following Golding's resignation and the calling of early elections on December 29, 2011, the JLP was defeated and this saw the return of the PNP to government, with Simpson Miller again at the helm as Prime Minister.
All this time, the Trafigura investigation was being pursued by the Dutch authorities and has remained a headache for the PNP
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