Counsel to Chief James Onanefe Ibori, Thursday May 19, 2016 told the
Southwark Court, Londonm that there may be no fair trial in the
confiscation hearing of James Ibori that is due to start in June at a
Southwark Crown Court in London.
According to a press statement signed by Ibori's Media Assistant, Tony Eluemunor, Ibori's lawyer said this during Thursday's preliminary hearing preparatory to the confiscation trial against Ibori that is due to start in June.
The lawyer, Mr. Ivan Krolic, said that there are established cases of corruption against the police and the crown prosecution counsels who investigated Ibori. This, he said, has led to dropping every member of entire Police and Crown Prosecution teams that investigated Ibori and his associates.
According to a press statement signed by Ibori's Media Assistant, Tony Eluemunor, Ibori's lawyer said this during Thursday's preliminary hearing preparatory to the confiscation trial against Ibori that is due to start in June.
The lawyer, Mr. Ivan Krolic, said that there are established cases of corruption against the police and the crown prosecution counsels who investigated Ibori. This, he said, has led to dropping every member of entire Police and Crown Prosecution teams that investigated Ibori and his associates.
Mr.
Krolic notified the court that following the revelation that the Police
involved in investigating Ibori for money laundry were themselves
involved in corruption, and were knowingly covered up by the Crown
Prosecution, the integrity of the entire process has been put in doubt.
He said: “there are cases of abuse of process against the crown
prosecution to deliberately manipulate the process to gain undue
advantage and inflate the confiscation figure which will require a stay
of proceeding in this case to allow for the abuse of process to be dealt
with”.
The
trial Judge, His Honour Tomlinson, acknowledging the precarious
situation of the Ibori case, especially the serious allegations of
police corruption which has led the Police authority itself acknowledged
the corruption charges and as a result to set up a review of the
process and corruption allegations against its officers, the Judge,
noted “there are a lot of perceptions and it is inevitable that the team
involved in the investigation and prosecution be changed following
these allegations”.
Putting
the Judge on notice should the confiscation trial begin as scheduled
while the application for crown and police abuse of process is held, Mr
Krolic said “our argument is that the whole process is infected and it
will be wrong for the confiscation hearing to continue...the allegation
is that the crown consistently and deliberately manipulated the system
and forced James Ibori to plead guilty and inflate the figures (of the
money involved) in the light of the serious allegation of police
corruption in this case”.
His
Honour Tomlinson replied: “I have an obligation to keep an open mind
and keep this under constant review”, and having also read the statement
witness of James Ibori's former Defence Counsel, Mr Nicholas Purnell
QC, that the Crown Counsels misled him to cause his client, James Ibori,
to plead guilty, there are potentials in the statements”. That
notwithstanding, the June start date of the Confiscation hearing may
hold though he alerted that “a number of potential hazards to this
proceedings have been flagged off”.
Meanwhile, the confiscation hearing is due to start on 6th June at Southwark Crown in London.
Signed: Tony Eluemunor
James Onanefe Ibori's Media Assistant.
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