Will INDECOM get powers to prosecute?

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BY ALICIA DUNKLEY-WILLIS Senior staff reporter dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com Saturday, June 29, 2013

JUSTICE Minister Senator Mark Golding says the handing down of a judgement by the Constitutional Court on whether the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) has powers to prosecute is being anticipated by the Joint Select Committee of Parliament tasked with reviewing the Act establishing the body.INDECOM, headed by Commissioner Terrence Williams, was established in August of 2010 with a mandate to investigate fatal shootings and reports of abuse by other agents of the State. It essentially removed the power from the security forces to investigate themselves.Section 37 of that Act establishing the commission requires that it be reviewed by a committee of both Houses of Parliament not later than three years after the date of commencement of the Act.“That third anniversary date is soon to be upon us and it was considered to get the committee up and running to do its work,” Golding said during the first meeting of the committee on Thursday.“That matter of whether or not INDECOM has powers to prosecute is a matter that has been litigated and there is a judgement of the Constitutional Court pending. My understanding is that the matter ended in February 2012 and the judgement is long outstanding,” the justice minister noted.Golding said he would like the judgememnt to be handed down as soon as possible so that it can inform the committee’s deliberations. “I believe that it’s going to be handed down at the end of this month which is any day now,” he said.Stating that he did not know “whether that deadline will be met”, Golding said he was in agreement with the suggestions of other committee members that the opinion of the Director of Public Prosecutions should be sought on the issue.“I also am of the view that INDECOM must have the power to prosecute cases, however, I wouldn’t say they haven’t achieved anything, they have achieved a lot,” Golding told the group.Golding’s comments were sparked by an observation made by Opposition Spokesperson on Justice Delroy Chuck during the meeting.According to Chuck, the frustration of the INDECOM Commissioner Terence Williams is because the objective of the body is not being achieved. “The objective was not only to investigate and collect material but my understanding is that he thought, and I think the vast majority of us thought, that he would have been able to prosecute; but with the interception of the DPP in that matter in Negril it is an area of ambivalence now,” Chuck noted.In the Negril incident, INDECOM investigators had charged Corporal Malica Reid in 2011 with the 2010 murder of Negril businessman Frederick “Mickey” Hill, and was planning to take the matter to court. However, the director of public prosecutions contended that INDECOM did not have the power to arrest and charge Reid. INDECOM was later criticised for acting prematurely in charging the police corporal, only to hear in court that DPP Paula Llewelyn had not yet ruled on the case.Chuck said the principles involved in the issue were still very much alive.

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Will INDECOM get powers to prosecute?