The UNC has said it stands by Chief Whip David Lee after charges were laid against him today related to the purchase and sale of a Mercedes-Benz
The party described the charges in a statement as "trumped up".
It said, "In fact, the Political Leader spoke of this issue a couple of weeks ago in the UNC Virtual Report. This is the typical PNM playbook with complicit operatives within the police service designed to embarrass and defame. As usual the case will roll on in the local court system for the next 20 years until MP Lee will be eventually cleared of the trumped up charges."
The statement added, "A blind man could have seen this type of banana republic persecution from the day Keith Rowley and the President illegally caused the Police Service Commission Merit List to be withdrawn. Keith Rowley’s unconstitutional interference in the work of the Police Service Commission for the appointment of a COP is now bearing fruit for the PNM."
The statement argued that "it is a deliberate, calculated and well-timed distraction by agents of the PNM to save the government from unrelenting condemnation by the population. This is the start of a reign of terror that we warned about. It comes when the UNC and other opposition voices are in the ascendancy. We will never be hounded and bullied into silence. We will continue to speak out and attack this corrupt and incompetent PNM government by the hour!"
The UNC maintains that the Chief Whip is innocent and will be vindicated at the courts.
"We demand that this matter be dealt with expeditiously. In the meanwhile we have questions as to why no arrests have been made with regard to former Attorney-General Faris Al-Rawi’s apparently fraudulent sale of his Porsche to former Police Service Commissioner, Roger Kawalsingh. Or what of the matter involving some children with high-powered rifles. To this day we don't know who those children are and neither does Faris Al-Rawi. Connected to this is the curious death of a soldier who was a witness in the matter. We need an update on this long-outstanding matter."