KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Edmund Bartlett has suggested that Minister of State Arnaldo Brown take leave from his position, pending the outcome of the current investigation into his legal conduct.

Bartlett noted that it is the second occasion in just over a year that Brown has been involved in a controversy, which raises concerns about his behaviour as both a junior minister of Government and a Member of Parliament.

He said that the statement by Brown that the latest claims against him involving a land deal in St Catherine, which is being probed by the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council (GLC), by a former client is “false and outright malicious”, and that he acted professionally and diligently in the performance of his duties as an attorney in the matter, is not sufficient.

Bartlett said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade is a delicate office, which requires exemplary behaviour, both in public and private activities, and the chance of a cloud of suspicion arising from the latest development could raise diplomatic issues.

He said that the current Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator AJ Nicholson, has already created enough controversy at the ministry for his junior minister to be following the same trend.

Balford Henry