(Jamaica Observer) The policeman who is alleged to have illegally handed wiretap evidence to United States authorities in the Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke extradition affair, is an innocent man, according to former Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin.
Lewin, who dramatically dubbed the policeman “Constable Red Herring” in an earlier media interview, told the Sunday Observer that there was no evidence that the wiretapping was even done in Jamaica.
“That is (nonsense)! He (the constable) did no such thing. There is no evidence anywhere, neither stated nor implied, that could be interpreted that any evidence changed hands. None!” said the former Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) chief of staff who became police commissioner.
His remarks sharply contradicted prime minister Bruce Golding’s assertion that wiretap evidence was illegally passed to the United States, in breach of Coke’s constitutional rights.
The Prime Minister said the alleged breach led to the hiring of the United States law firm Manatt, Phelps and Phillips to lobby the US administration on treaty matters.
Golding told a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) meeting in August that the breach was the reason for the delay in signing the warrant for Coke’s arrest, having earlier stated in parliament that he was prepared to pay a political price defending Coke’s constitutional rights.
