The government is allowing party and constituency politics to influence the due administration of justice, former attorney general Senator Carl ﾠalleged at the ﾠmass rally last night.
Recent events, he said, have led the to decide that if it were elected to office, it would immediately continue the process of removing responsibility for the conduct of criminal prosecutions from the hands of the attorney general, a political appointee, and place responsibility for such decisions in the hands of a director of public prosecutions – as has been done throughout the British Commonwealth.
The director of public prosecutions, he said, will have security of tenure similar to the job security of the commissioner of police.
"This reform will forever do away with the possibility of direct political influence or control over the application of the criminal law in the Bahamas. Bahamians should be able to have complete confidence that there is no political interference or political considerations in the business of criminal prosecutions," Mr ﾠsaid.
He pointed out that law enforcement is a serious and sober business, not a matter of "catchy phrases and frequent press conferences".
"The serious business of law enforcement should not be made into a poppy show. Yet in the case of a policeman we see the administration of justice by the attorney general who, it ﾠseems, is listening to the 'word on the streets' and who has, herself, suggested that the police force is engaged in a coverup.
"She is quoted in the Bahama Journal on the 24th May 2006 as saying: 'The question of a cover-up came from my community; people are very, very concerned about shooting incidents, especially when they involve the police'," Mr Bethel quoted her as saying.
He said that while he agreed that the attorney general has the constitutional right to interfere in any prosecution, she needs to explain an allegation that she repeated that it seemed the police were trying to cover something up.
Mr Bethel said the FNM are not making any judgments about who is guilty or innocent in the shooting incident, rather they question the political involvement, which they consider harmful and which could have a negative affect upon the progress of the case.
By Rupert Missick, The Tribune
