THE PLP RESPONDS TO CARL BETHEL ON ASHE
From The Office of The Chairman of The PLP
On AG Declaring Ashe To Be A Whistleblower
For Immediate Release
26 September 2018
We are incredulous today after reading an incredible headline about the star witness in the Government’s signature case of alleged corruption. The Attorney General Carl Bethel has declared Johnathan Ashe to be a whistleblower. He did so in the course of confirming that payments are being received for contracts which the AG says were legally contracted prior to their coming to office.
The AG suppresses at every turn discussion in the Senate on these cases of alleged corruption when we raise it in Parliament. The media agrees with this suppression as it applies to the PLP’s opinions.
The Attorney General, however, now has no compunction in becoming judge in his own cause and declaring someone to be a whistleblower, i.e., a willing witness to a prosecution.
Surely the question must be determined within a proper judicial setting: whether or not the witness is in fact a whistleblower. Is he a volunteer or has he been induced, bullied or cajoled?
Those are questions the defence counsel must raise in a trial. This is particularly so against the fact of evidence already evinced before the court about the conduct of the crown and its witnesses in one of these cases in which the “whistleblower” is the chief witness.
Things get curiouser and curiouser.
We again call for these cases to end. The atmosphere within which they are occurring is so toxic that it is hard to see how justice will be served.
