Prime Minister Allen Chastanet has revealed that the appointment of an acting Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) will be announced soon by the Legal and Judicial Services Commission.
Chastanet said once that DPP is in place, that person must make a request for a special prosecutor.
“The government is ready to facilitate that. The British and American have also agreed that they will help fund that special prosecutor,” the prime minister recently revealed.
This will help the new DPP in proceeding with the case regarding alleged extra-judicial killings by local police.
The government recently agreed to increase the salary scale for the DPP from grade 20 to 21. The salary for the new DPP is now be between EC$22,000 – EC$23,000.
Plans are still in place for the appointment of an independent tribunal to deal with the IMPACS case, but Chastanet said the terms of reference is now being drawn up by a local attorney.
The Bar Association, Chief Justice and the US/EU/Canada will nominate persons to sit on that tribunal panel.
Meanwhile, the prime minister noted that there were some flaws in the IMPACS investigation, as the Jamaican policemen who compiled the report, worked independently.
“What should of happened is that those Jamaican policemen should have replaced the local law enforcement. In any investigation, the law enforcement agency and the DPP office work as a team. One does the investigation and one does the trial. So the DPP office work was making sure evidence collected were legal.”
The United States has made it clear to the new government in Saint Lucia that the ongoing failure to bring to justice those responsible within the local police force for gross violations of human rights prevents the US from reconsidering the sanctions imposed on the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF) under the Leahy Law.
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