KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) senators have threatened to withdraw from the debate to replace the Judiciary Committee of the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice as Jamaica’s final appellate court.

Senator Marlene Malahoo Forte, who was minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade under the 2007/2011 JLP Administration, was suspended on Friday for failing to provide President of the Senate Floyd Morris with a copy of a 2010 letter from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, offering to sit as an itinerant court in Jamaica if accommodated by the Government.

Read: Malahoo Forte suspended from Senate“In light of the treatment meted out to our colleague senator, the unnecessary and inappropriate actions of the Senate, the Opposition senators will not continue to participate in the debate on the three CCJ Bills until the suspension of our colleague senator has been lifted and an appropriate apology given to her by the president and Government senators,” said a letter dated October 26, 2015 addressed to Morris.Senator Tom Tavares-Finson, leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, sent the letter to the Senate president.The Opposition insisted that the rights of the senator have been trampled on, as “there is nothing to justify her suspension”.At the same time, Opposition Leader Andrew Holness has demanded that the Government apologise to Malahoo Forte and immediately withdraw her suspension, which he says has no basis in the rules of Parliament.