Out of the 15 DLP government leaders accused of a treating case in 2014, 12 of them pleaded not guilty when they appeared before a magistrate court in Roseau on Thursday. However, one of the petitioners, Mervin Jno Baptiste, withdrew his accusation against the defendants, saying he did so because of certain threats to his family members.
The DLP leaders that were in court were PM Roosevelt Skerrit, Reginald Austrie, Rayburn Blackmoore, Catherine Daniel, Ian Douglas, Kenneth Darroux, Roselyn Paul, Cassius Darroux, Johnson Drigo, Colin McIntyre, Ian Pinard, and Petter St. Jean. The persons constituted cabinet ministers and former parliamentarians.
But MP Ivor Stephenson, Kelver Darroux, and Justina Charles were not in court because Stephenson was very ill and both Darroux and Charles were not in the country.
The defendants were accused of election treating by organizing a concert on November 28, 2014 and December 6, 2014 with the calculated purpose of influencing the electorates to vote for DLP candidates. And as it turned out, the DLP witnessed landslide victories at the polls – a situation that compelled Mervin Jno Baptiste, Edingcot St. Valle, and Antoine Defoe (now deceased) with the support of the opposition to accuse the winning party of bribery and corruption.
At the court, the defendants were represented by Andrew Pilgrim (QC) and assisted by Heather Felix Evans, Lennox Lawrence and Jodi Luke; and the petitioners were represented by Justin Simon (QC) and assisted by Julien Prevost, Ronald Charles, and Cara Shillingford.
The trial for the case is set for Tuesday, June 8, 2021.
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