Dillian also wants PM's advice on CJ

DILLIAN JOHNSON – the alleged friend of Chief Justice Ivor Archie and a convicted fraudster now living in the UK under humanitarian status – says he had hoped that a section 137 impeachment tribunal would have “provided some degree of clarity” on the allegations against the CJ.

In a letter to the media, sent on Saturday, Johnson said his hope for a tribunal would have also provided him with an opportunity to return home “in safety and security.”

“My transition to the UK has been difficult and is something that I did not enter too lightly,” he said of his decision to seek asylum in the UK. He did so but was instead granted humanitarian protection by the UK Government.

“I deeply miss my loved ones and my homeland, but due to threats and a failed attempt on my life that in my mind are intractably linked directly to the Chief Justice I cannot return home,” Johnson said in his letter.

According to him, it was an “incontrovertible and irrepressible fact” that he was critical in the entire matter involving the CJ “and as such I am and remain concern about a potential outcome and findings of a Section 137 Tribunal on the Chief Justice.”

Johnson said he is yet to hear from the police on their investigations into his report on his shooting in December 2017, which led him to flee TT for England.

He said he, too, wanted to know the details of the legal advice given to the Prime Minister to convince him not to trigger section 137.

“Who was the Senior Counsel that provided the legal advice and at what cost to the taxpayers?” Johnson asked.

“It is therefore in the interest of the nation that the legal advice be made public as well as the name of the attorney and the cost associated,” he said in his letter.

He also said he “anxiously awaited” the response of the Law Association to the Prime Minister’s position and hoped that the association contemplate judicial review proceedings.

“I know first-hand and as a party to the subject of the investigation the truth from fiction and I know that there is sufficient evidence to trigger Section 137,” Johnson asserted.

The association’s council is expected to meet this week on the issue and its president, Douglas Mendes, SC, says they intend to write to the Prime Minister asking for the advice he received.

On Thursday, Prime Minsiter Dr Rowley said weeks ago, he received legal advice that he “should not acquiesce to the Law Association’s request.”

He also said he did not take advice from the association and the legal advice he received also indicated that he should not take the association’s advice. Rowley also said he did not rely on advice from the Office of the Attorney General.

In December, the association’s membership voted in favour of referring the allegations against Archie to the Prime Minister for further action.

Within days, the association sent its report, two legal opinions counsel, a letter from the CJ's lawyers calling on the association to declare there was no basis to make a reference to the PM under section 137 and the association's reply.

In its letter to the PM, the association’s secretary Elena Araujo admitted that its own committee was unable to substantiate some of the allegations against Archie, but was satisfied there was "sufficient substantiation" of others for referral to him.

Araujo also pointed out that there was a difference of opinion by the association's counsel as to which of the allegations, if true, constitute misbehaviour. "But, they were both of the view that the evidence gathered was sufficient to justify a referral by the Law Association to you under section 137."

"I wish to emphasis in closing that the association has made no finding of misbehaviour against the Honourable Chief Justice but only that there is sufficient evidence to support a referral under section 137 for you to determine whether a representation to Her Excellency the President under section 137 is warranted."

Months before the matter was referred to the prime minister, Archie lost a legal challenge, at the Privy Council, against the association allowing it to continue its own probe of the allegations of misconduct against him.

The Privy Council’s ruling held that the association had the power to make a formal complaint to the prime minister where justified and a duty to defend the Judiciary against unjustified criticism.

The association’s investigations surrounded allegations contained in media reports that accused Archie of attempting to persuade judges to change their State-provided security in favour of a private company where his friend, Dillian Johnson, worked.

Archie was also accused of attempting to fast-track Housing Development Corporation (HDC) applications for various people. He has denied discussing judges’ security, but admitted to recommending people for HDC housing.

He also said he did not “engage in any ‘lobbying’ of any person” to the HDC.