All charges against ‘UPP Three dismissed,’ as Judge upholds no-case submissions
Three former United Progressive Party (UPP) Ministers are elated that they have been vindicated by the court, with all charges against them dismissed.
At the end of the Crown’s case, Anesta Weekes, Q.C., Justin Simon, Q.C., and Dane Hamilton, Q.C. — the high-powered team that defended Harold Lovell, Willmoth Daniel and Dr. Jacqui Quinn — made no-case submissions which the presiding judge upheld.
Therefore, the accused did not have to mount a defense.
Lovell spoke to Progressive FM shortly after the judge handed down his decision today, November 23, and told the radio audience that his exoneration was a “magnificent moment.”
The UPP Political Leader notes that this is the second occasion on which the court has vindicated them.
Daniel, the former Minister of Health, thanked God for seeing the trio through this case and for allowing justice to be served.
Daniel says he received somewhat of an omen on Monday, November 22, when a bottle fell from his hand. He says he took this as a sign from God that the matter against them would be dropped.
Meanwhile, the former Education Minister, Dr. Quinn, says the case was a political witch hunt that the presiding judge saw through; hence, his ruling.
Quinn says she is elated by the court’s decision.
Looking ahead, Lovell says that any and all attempts by the Gaston Browne Administration to further prosecute the cases will be resisted strongly and defended with equal passion.
He says the prosecution was politically motivated from inception, and he has received word that an appeal of today’s ruling is imminent.
After the cases began, Prime Minister Gaston Browne had attempted to distance himself from the matter, saying he had nothing to do with the prosecution.
However, his declaration was met with disbelief even among his supporters, some of whom told REAL News that prosecuting the matter “was just politics.”
This is because the cases against the three were initially dismissed in the lower Court by Magistrate Conliffe Clarke. The matter was put back in the court after Clarke’s decision was appealed, and Chief Magistrate Joanne Walsh sent it up for trial in the High Court.
