Attorney General Faris A- Rawi says “the Emailgate saga is far from over.”
And while he is unhappy with the position of the Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams on the issue, he said he does not intend to speak to the police nor the Director of Public Prosecutions with whom the matter now rests.
Last Friday, Williams said publicly that the investigation into Emailgate is now complete and after four years of investigation “very little of substance,” had been found. The matter, according to the top CoP, is now with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The statement made by the Commissioner has been criticised by Al-Rawi who told the post-Cabinet news conference yesterday that “the Commissioner of Police said in a nonchalant, passing way that nothing of substance was there.”
But he said the real crux of the matter is what was under investigation.
“Was it emails? What period was the investigation looking at?” he asked. He said there were a number of questions which were left unanswered.
“Were there in fact emails of this type and more importantly was there any corroborative evidence about the matters? Did someone approach the Chief Justice and ask that the Director of Public Prosecutions be elevated as a Judge? Were their tracers in the conference room of the DPP’s Office?” Al-Rawi said he has evidence that the Office of the DPP was bugged.
He noted the “emailgate (matter) has been pronounced upon several times. It is not the first time we have been told it’s at an end.”
He recalled that when the past Chairman of the Integrity Commission publicly stated that the Emailgate probe was at an end, it led to a number of resignations from the Commission. In addition, he said, “the acting Commissioner previously said that Emailgate was at an end, but we know that is not the case.”
The Opposition United National Congress (UNC) has called for the resignation of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley after the Acting Commissioner announced that the police had found nothing of substance found in the emails.
Rowley said it is now five years since the matter first came to notice. He said, “what was needed to be determined is whether there were people in government engaged in criminal conduct.”
Al-Rawi recalled that it was in May 2013 that Rowley approached the Parliament and revealed the information which a whistle-blower had provided and which he had taken to then-President George Maxwell Richards in December 2012.