Ibori London Trial; Thursday's Court Proceedings
Counsel
to Chief James Onanefe Ibori, Thursday May 19, 2016 told the Southwark Court,
Londonm that there may be no fair trial in the confiscation hearing of James
Ibori that is due to start in June at a Southwark Crown Court in London.
According to a press statement signed by Ibori's Media Assistant, Tony Eluemunor, Ibori's lawyer said this during Thursday's preliminary hearing preparatory to the confiscation trial against Ibori that is due to start in June.
The lawyer, Mr. Ivan Krolic, said that there are established cases of corruption against the police and the crown prosecution counsels who investigated Ibori. This, he said, has led to dropping every member of entire Police and Crown Prosecution teams that investigated Ibori and his associates.
According to a press statement signed by Ibori's Media Assistant, Tony Eluemunor, Ibori's lawyer said this during Thursday's preliminary hearing preparatory to the confiscation trial against Ibori that is due to start in June.
The lawyer, Mr. Ivan Krolic, said that there are established cases of corruption against the police and the crown prosecution counsels who investigated Ibori. This, he said, has led to dropping every member of entire Police and Crown Prosecution teams that investigated Ibori and his associates.
Mr. Krolic notified
the court that following the revelation that the Police involved in
investigating Ibori for money laundry were themselves involved in corruption,
and were knowingly covered up by the Crown Prosecution, the integrity of the
entire process has been put in doubt. He said: “there are cases of abuse of
process against the crown prosecution to deliberately manipulate the process to
gain undue advantage and inflate the confiscation figure which will require a
stay of proceeding in this case to allow for the abuse of process to be dealt
with”.
The trial Judge, His
Honour Tomlinson, acknowledging the precarious situation of the Ibori case,
especially the serious allegations of police corruption which has led the
Police authority itself acknowledged the corruption charges and as a result to
set up a review of the process and corruption allegations against its officers,
the Judge, noted “there are a lot of perceptions and it is inevitable that the
team involved in the investigation and prosecution be changed following these
allegations”.
Putting the Judge on
notice should the confiscation trial begin as scheduled while the application
for crown and police abuse of process is held, Mr Krolic said “our argument is
that the whole process is infected and it will be wrong for the confiscation
hearing to continue...the allegation is that the crown consistently and
deliberately manipulated the system and forced James Ibori to plead guilty and
inflate the figures (of the money involved) in the light of the serious
allegation of police corruption in this case”.
His Honour Tomlinson
replied: “I have an obligation to keep an open mind and keep this under
constant review”, and having also read the statement witness of James Ibori's
former Defence Counsel, Mr Nicholas Purnell QC, that the Crown Counsels misled
him to cause his client, James Ibori, to plead guilty, there are potentials in
the statements”. That notwithstanding, the June start date of the Confiscation
hearing may hold though he alerted that “a number of potential hazards to this
proceedings have been flagged off”.
Meanwhile, the
confiscation hearing is due to start on 6th June at Southwark Crown
in London.
Signed: Tony Eluemunor
James Onanefe Ibori's
Media Assistant.
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