‘Unreasonable and unfair’ - Keith Clarke family welcomes court ruling that trial of soldiers will continue
Published:Wednesday | February 19, 2020 | 12:00 AMNickoy Wilson/Staff Reporter
The family of late businessman Keith Clarke is hopeful that justice will be served following yesterday’s ruling by the Constitutional Court deeming “null, void and invalid” the immunity certificates issued to the three soldiers accused of his 2010 murder, paving the way for the criminal proceedings to continue.
In 2018, lawyers representing the army men – Corporal Odel Buckley, Lance Corporal Greg Tinglin, and Private Arnold Henry – presented to the court the certificates of immunity signed by then National Security Minister Peter Bunting on February 22, 2016, causing the judge to halt the long-delayed proceedings.
The trial has experienced a delay every year since it was first set for trial in 2013.
Widow Dr Claudette Clarke, who, along with the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), challenged the constitutionality of the immunity certificates, is encouraged by the ruling.
“It means a lot to me and my family because it has been 10 years of not knowing what is happening. ... What is more important is that the court of the land of Jamaica, my home, that it went before them and a judgment was made, and I trust their judgment,” Clarke said in an interview with The Gleaner moments after the ruling was handed down.
ILLOGICAL
Claude Clarke, brother of the deceased, expressed disbelief that it was thought that the immunity certificates could stand.
“It is great news. I must say that speaking as a layperson, the immunity certificates issued in 2016 for the state of emergency that ended in 2010 is completely illogical, and it amazed me that anyone thought they had any validity at all to begin with.
“It makes no sense, and, of course, the judges quite rightly saw it that way, so I am happy, very happy,” he said yesterday in a telephone interview with The Gleaner.
Clarke added: “I hope the case will now progress very quickly through the criminal case and the civil case as well with the appropriate outcome – outcome of justice for Keith Clarke’s family.”
Meanwhile, three months after hearing a challenge brought by Clarke’s widow, two of the three-member panel of judges, comprising Justices Leighton Pusey, Marcia Dunbar Green and Annmarie Nembhard, yesterday said the certificates were manifestly unfair and unreasonable.
“The minister’s power to issue good faith certificates under the emergency powers regulations do not infringe and are not in conflict with the principle of the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution,” said Pusey, reading from paragraph 160 of the 55-page judgment.
He said, too, that the Emergency Powers Regulations do not infringe on the prosecutorial powers of the director of public prosecutions under the Constitution and that the criminal proceeding should be restored to the trial list.
Subsequently, the court ordered that the criminal case be restored to the trial list and permitted to continue and declared the good-faith certificates, or any certificate issued on February 22, 2016 by the then minister of national security outside of the emergency period, were supplied in circumstances that were manifestly “unreasonable and unfair” and were, therefore, null and void and without effect.
Clarke was shot 21 times and killed at his Kirkland Heights home during an operation conducted by the Jamaica Defence Force purportedly to capture drug kingpin Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.