Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday described as a con job the presentation of "fabricated" e-mails by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley on the Section 34 fiasco. Persad-Bissessar said the matter was "a total, total fabrication," as she did not send those e-mails in the month of September last year, after the T&T Guardian published an exclusive story about the early proclamation of Section 34 of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceeding) Bill 2011.
The legislation was subsequently hurriedly repealed in emergency sittings of the House of Representatives and the Senate in early September.Rowley yesterday presented copies of 31 e-mails during his presentation of a motion of lack of confidence in the PM and the PP Government.Persad-Bissessar called a news conference at Parliament at the Waterfront, Port-of-Spain, hours after Rowley's allegations to the House. She said she had written to Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams to do an immediate investigation into the e-mails to determine if they were authentic.
Persad-Bissessar admitted that one e-mail address which Rowley gave, kamlapb1@gmail.com, was hers, but said she did not send any of the e-mails.Earlier in the no-confidence motion debate, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan also said the e-mails were fabricated.Persad-Bissessar described the development as "bad news.".She said she went to her computer after hearing Rowley's claims. "These e-mails, I want to say, are a total fabrication," she said.
Persad-Bissessar said she was also very surprised that Rowley had had the information for some six months and did not refer it to the police for investigation.She said, however, that the matters raised were serious and consequently she wrote to Williams asking for an investigation to be commenced.In the letter, dated May 20 (yesterday), Persad-Bissessar said the matter alleged serious criminal conduct and asked Williams to investigate "these very serious allegations and ascertain the authenticity of those e-mails and to take such action as is required according to the law."
She said she hoped the probe would be completed in the shortest possible time, and said the Government would be considering drafting legislation to address the matter in due course.The PM said the matter of the e-mails was never raised in her meeting with the President. Rowley reportedly said he referred the e-mails to the President several months ago.She said she hoped Rowley would co-operate with the police in the forthcoming probe. She said she was confident that justice will be served and anyone found guilty of an offence in this investigation would be made to feel the brunt of the law.
She indicated that if Rowley was also found to be providing inaccurate information, he could face sanction in the Parliament via a motion of privilege."If these allegations are false then the member may be in contempt of the House with respect to misleading the House," she said.