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| Mr. Gohil |
The alleged conspiracy against
former Delta State governor Chief James Ibori, which led to his indictment and
incarceration in a London prison, has continued to unravel as a former
solicitor Bhadresh Gohil, who was linked to the high-profile prosecution of the
former governor, has received £20,000 from the UK Crown Prosecution Service,
after claims he was wrongly deprived of his liberty.
The extraordinary payment is just
the latest twist in a legal case that has led to investigations into
allegations of police corruption and a cover-up of key evidence which would
have arguably resulted in a different judgment in the ruling to jail Chief
Ibori in London.
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| Chief James Ibori |
Convicted of money laundering,
Mr. Gohil was expecting to be released from prison on bail in November, 2015
having served half his sentence for fraud and money laundering, but the
prosecution barrister, Sasha Wass QC had applied for the bail ruling to be
revoked, less than a week before the release date.
This has prompted Mr. Gohil’s
defence team to argue in a bail hearing that the prosecution had “manipulated
dishonestly and in bad faith” the process by repeatedly telling the court that
unconditional bail was unopposed, in response to the submission by Sasha Wass
at same hearing, who had told the judge that she had made it plain that the
Crown “would be seeking to review bail when the halfway point of Mr. Gohil’s
sentence arose”.
“The defence were [put] on notice
that the question of bail would be revisited,” the CPS prosecutor told the
court.
Both Scotland Yard and the Crown
Prosecution Service deny any wrongdoing, but the Crown Prosecution Service has
now agreed to pay Mr. Gohil £20,000 “in full and final settlement” of claims
that he was unlawfully detained for 33 days between 20 November and 22 December
2015. Bail was finally granted just before Christmas.
However, the CPS states that it
“makes no admission of liability or of any wrongdoing” by its staff or counsel
instructed by the service.
A payment of £20,000 in a case
where an individual is deprived of his liberty for 33 days as a result of
claims of misconduct by the Crown is significantly higher than might be
expected for “basic damages”.
Mr. Gohil was jailed for 10 years
in 2010 for helping Nigerian politician James Ibori launder millions in money
that had been corruptly obtained.
Ibori was also jailed for 13
years in 2012 having pleaded guilty to laundering millions in the UK through
the purchase of property and expensive cars.
While in prison, Mr. Gohil
anonymously sent documents to the authorities which purported to show police
officers investigating James Ibori had accepted bribes from private detectives
hired by the man they were pursuing.
Following a £1m investigation by
Scotland Yard’s Department of Professional Standards, Mr. Gohil was accused of
forging the documents and subsequently charged with attempting to pervert the
course of justice.
Prosecutors alleged that he had
faked the documents to try to get his conviction overturned on appeal.
The CPS “makes no admission of
liability or wrongdoing” by its staff or counsel instructed by the service
However, the Crown Prosecution
Service abandoned a planned trial in January this year amid defense claims that
crucial evidence of alleged police corruption had been covered up.
In May this year, the CPS
acknowledged that it had intelligence that “supports the assertion” that a
Metropolitan Police officer was paid for information.
Det. Sgt John McDonald, who had
headed the investigation into James Ibori, was then removed from the National
Crime Agency’s International Corruption Unit, where he had been on secondment.
A review of Det Sgt McDonald’s
status was initiated and the Metropolitan Police has confirmed that the review
has been completed and the officer has now been deployed to an operational post
in its specialist crime and operations unit.
Det. Sgt McDonald has always
denied any wrongdoing.
The National Crime Agency is
currently conducting a review into alleged evidence of police corruption, as
well as claims that the CPS withheld key evidence from defense lawyers and
whether the convictions of James Ibori and others including Bhadresh Gohil are
safe.
This latest decision to award Mr.
Bhadresh Gohil, Ibori’s former lawyer, the sum of £20,000 by UK Govt for
unlawful imprisonment, is indeed for Ibori and clearly indicates that there is
indeed more to process of trial and subsequent decision to incarcerate the
former Delta state governor, than meets the eye.
Recall that the
Ibori trial was to take a new twist recently when the Southwark Crown Court,
London, earlier this year, ruled to suspend the start of the confiscation
hearing against him, until the conclusion of the investigation of corruption,
and misleading the court, charges against the British Police and the
Prosecution in jailing the former Delta State governor.
Chief James Onanaefe Ibori’s
defense lawyers had shocked the Southwark Court, London, when they adduced
evidence before Judge Tomlinson of a conspiracy between Nigeria and Britain to
railroad Ibori and his associates to jail and the court proceedings had been
delayed for hours because the London Metropolitan Police and the Crown
Prosecution Service, suddenly turned lukewarm and refused to appear in court
for the day’s hearing.
A statement issued by Chief
Ibori’s spokesperson, Mr. Tony Eluemunor had said that a thoroughly
disappointed Judge Tomlinson had been left with no option when the prosecution
lawyers had dilly-dallied over appearing in court to address a case of
professional misconduct, dishonesty, perverting the course of justice and
criminal non-disclosures, lying to the trial court and Court of Appeal, which
the crown court had described as ‘serious and urgent’.
The worst charge so far against
the British prosecution had been made, according to Eluemunor, when the court
resumed by 2p.m., and Mr. Kamish, counsel to Ibori’s former lawyer, Badresh
Gohil, had dropped the bombshell when he revealed a sinister conspiracy between
Nigeria and Britain to railroad Ibori and associates to jail.
He had then backed this up by
pointing at a document signed by British and Nigerian governments agreeing that
the Department for International Development will be paid 25 million Pounds
Sterling from money that will be confiscated from Ibori, before any penny is
ever remitted to Nigeria.
The two prosecutors, Sasha Wass
and Esther Schutzer-Weissmann and in fact, all the prosecution lawyers plus the
entire police officers that have represented the British Police, were not only
at the end of finger-pointing, but had all been dismissed from the Ibori case
and all other cases stemming from it, following allegations of corruption
against them, including lies and deliberate misleading of the court and their
activities are now being challenged in court for grounds of upturning all the
convictions – Ibori’s and his associates’.
The court had also held that
issues raised, on behalf of Mr. Ibori was that the predecessor of the new
prosecution lawyer, Mr Kinnear, had manipulated proceedings, are no longer a
discreet matter, since allegations that previous counsel either misled or
manipulated the court to abort the proceeding had been widely published and
reported in major media outfits and cannot be allowed to go away.
The Court had then ordered a
“Review which will be internal to the London Metropolitan Police, but the mass
media whose exactions over the years have been drumming that the review be
made, will still be there to watch and ensure that nothing inappropriate is
swept under the carpet”.
With these recent developments
therefore, Ibori now stands a good chance of having his guilty plea and
conviction revisited and probably quashed if the Review into Disclosure and
Police Corruption establishes that indeed there has been failings leading to
corruption on the part of the British police during investigation and the
Prosecution deliberately withheld the materials used against Ibori, just to
manipulate the court in securing Ibori’s conviction.
Beyond all else, the conclusion
of the Review will pave the way for Ibori’s defense team to appeal against his
conviction and seek to quash it. No matter how embarrassing this may be to
Britain and her anti-corruption stance, the mass media’s crusade that the rule
of law has to be respected even when a government is fighting corruption and
that any society that condones police corruption is already mired in
corruption, is bearing fruit. Even the British Parliament is watching the case
as the members of its hallowed chambers have also discussed it.
The case is likely to resume in
October after the outcome of the Review and Ibori’s defense team will decide on
how to proceed with the outcome.
Source: Flashpoint News online
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