AG: ‘E-mailgate’ far from over

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi yesterday said the “e-mailgate” saga is far from over. Al-Rawi made the statement at the final post-Cabinet news conference for this year at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s. He said the Opposition United National Congress (UNC) has consistently been proven wrong that the matter is over and the former People’s Partnership (PP) government has been vindicated.

“The e-mailgate saga was tied into the Section 34 issue,” Al-Rawi said.

He said one issue in the saga was, were there e-mails. He said another issue was if there was any corroborative evidence about the matters and substance which the e-mails spoke to. Since assuming his post in 2015, Al-Rawi said, “We have confirmed that SIS (Super Industrial Services) through its ownership of EBSL (Executive Bodyguard Services Ltd) replaced the security at the DPP’s (Director of Public Prosecutions) Office.

“I can certify now that there was a Special Branch report produced, which demonstrated there was infra-red technology listening equipment capability in the conference room of the DPP.” Al-Rawi said these actions occurred under a former attorney general under the PP. The AG said the period of August 31 to September 30, 2012 was also instructive. He said this was the period in which the PP made a mutual legal request to Google to investigate.

The AG said that request was made on November 4, 2014. Al-Rawi said the question is whether this period was too narrow. He said if e-mails existed in July 2012 or October 2012, Google could not answer that question. Al-Rawi said it is also unclear as to whether any e-mails pertinent to this issue were deleted, if the scope of investigation was too narrow.

“I am told that several persons were not interviewed by the TT Police Service as to the substantive allegations,” Al-Rawi said. “So there are a number of open issues on the table.”

Al-Rawi stressed that he will allow the police and the DPP to do their work freely in this matter.