Gov't to respond to Michael Gayle issue next week
November 12, 2005
ATTORNEY-General and Minister of Justice Senator A J Nicholson is to respond to criticisms of the government's handling of the Michael Gayle case next week.
"During the coming week, I am going to hold a press conference concerning the entire issue of Michael Gayle," Senator Nicholson told the Senate, yesterday.
"There are a lot of glass houses around, you know, but some of us running from them," he said. "Look, look, look, when it comes to the issue of human rights, or the protection and enhancement of human rights in this country; he who is without sin let him cast the first stone. We are all at fault. There is a pain on our country and none of us can run away from it," said the minister.
He said that people have been saying on radio that his chamber, as well as the government, the chief of staff of the Jamaica Defence Force and the director of public prosecutions (DPP) should be ashamed but that, "next week I will say who else should be ashamed".
Nicholson was referring to the recent report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) which described the police investigations into the killing of Gayle by the security force in 1999 as botched and called on the government to publicly apologise to Gayle's family and pay compensation to his mother.
The commission, whose ruling alleged that Gayle's experience was akin to torture, also urged government to open a new investigation into the human rights abuses committed against Gayle, and to identify, prosecute and punish all the persons responsible for the violations.
Senator Nicholson made the comments as he closed the debate on the amendments to the Criminal Justice Administration and Legal Aid acts, yesterday, paving the way for legislation providing better protection for persons with mental disorders who are caught up in the penal system.
The Criminal Justice (Administration) Act was amended to, among other things: clarify the procedure for the trial of the issue of fitness of a defendant to stand trial; provide for the regular review of cases of accused persons remanded in custody after having been found unfit to stand trial; widen the range of orders that the court can make in the case of a defendant unfit to stand trial, or in the case of a special verdict; extend the provisions of legal aid to an accused person in respect of whom the issue of fitness has to be determined; and substitute "forensic psychiatric inmate" for "criminal lunatic" in the Act.
The Legal Aid Act was amended to allow for legal aid for persons declared fit to stand trial, regardless of the nature of the offence. The amendments were passed with support from the Opposition, after Senator Nicholson and Senator Kern Spencer responded to concerns raised by Senator Dorothy Lightbourne and Senator Christopher Tufton of the Opposition.
Michael Gayle's mother expects more compensation...
Author: Balford Henry
Source: Jamaica Observer
