Jonathan Gardiner, a well known churchman in the TCI, has today described the TCI’s judicial system as ‘shambolic’ and says it has recently provoked an onslaught of public criticism.
Most of the criticism was long overdue, fair and reasonable says Mr Gardiner. The Attorney General and the President of the Bar Association, however, had come running to its defense, with less than subtle threats of fines and imprisonment. Those threats, in turn, had rightfully caused even wider public indignation. In a criminal justice system that was adversarial, with a prosecution and defense on opposite sides, an independent judiciary was critical, but at the top of most lists of criticisms were grave concerns about the independence of the local judiciary.
There was a perception that there was little distinction between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the SIPT, the former legislature, the Governor and the local judiciary. There was a perception that the criminal justice system had been compromised, having been sewn up to ensure convictions of the SIPT’s targets, regardless of the evidence of actual guilt or innocence.
The full text of Mr Gardiner’s letter is on our RTC Website and the case in detail he lays out against the country’s criminal justice system.
