Dillian afraid to come home

YVONNE WEBB

CALLS are being made by the public and the legal fraternity for Chief Justice Ivor to clear the air on allegations against him, once and for all times, as the issues dogging him has now taken an international hue.

Even as CJ Archie moves to block investigations by the Law Association into allegations of misconduct, the man at the centre of some of the controversy, Dillian Johnson, has spoken to a UK newspaper saying he is now afraid to come back home.

The UK Guardian carried a story headlined, “Questions over shooting of gay man with links to Trinidad judge”, dated February 28, which quoted Johnson as saying he was forced to flee Trinidad and seek asylum in Britain, after he was shot in an ambush and now fears being killed for his sexuality.

The very detailed article also raised questions about whether CJ Archie, whom the UK Guardian described as a “married judge”, took Johnson with him to a four-day Commonwealth law conference in Guyana in 2016. The article also published the CJ’s denial of staying in the same room as Johnson or paying his bills and that US forensic experts had concluded photos had been digitally manipulated.

The UK Guardian article also queried allegations that have been published in local newspapers against CJ Archie. Johnson, 36, arrived in the UK on December 29, three weeks after he survived a shooting incident outside his home in South Trinidad.

He told the UK Guardian he believes he was the target of a failed ‘hit’ and identified people who may have been the mastermind behind the attempt on his life. “I fear being murdered for my sexuality if I go back,” Johnson said in the UK Guardian article. He also complained to the UK newspaper about the inaction of the TT police in bringing his attacker to justice.

The article in the UK newspaper said Johnson is being assisted in his asylum bid by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell who described Johnson as being gay and TT, as being very homophobic.

The UK article comes one day after the CJ and his legal team led by former Attorney General John Jeremie, SC, went to the High Court and sought leave for judicial review against the Law Association which is investigating several allegations made against Archie. The UK Guardian report stated that Archie, 57, is an honorary member of the middle temple bench, one of London’s four inns of court and is considered a liberal thinker on gay rights.