UPDATE: Judge rules Norton Hinds must testify in Trafigura matter
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Businessman Norton Hinds must answer questions under oath in the 15-year-old Trafigura affair, a Supreme Court judge has ruled.
Justice Stephanie Jackson-Haislay made the ruling after Hinds had earlier stated that he did not wish to participate in the questioning about the controversial $31-million donation by Dutch oil-lifting firm Trafigura Beheer to the People’s National Party (PNP) Government in 2006.
Hinds subsequently took the oath and is now on the stand.
In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that former Prime Minister and PNP President Portia Simpson Miller, as well as Phillip Paulwell, Robert Pickersgill, Colin Campbell, and Hinds should testify in open court about the donation.
The matter was subsequently escalated to the Privy Council by party officials after the Court of Appeal, in 2017 dismissed an appeal against the 2011 ruling.
The Trafigura affair was brought to public attention in October 2006 by then Opposition Leader Bruce Golding who revealed that the firm, which traded oil for Jamaica on the international market, had donated $31 million to an account operated by Campbell – the CCOC Association. At the time, Campbell was the minister of information and development and also general secretary of the PNP. The money was transferred to the account just prior to the PNP’s annual conference that year.
Conflictingly, Trafigura Beheer said the money was part of a commercial agreement, while the PNP maintained that it was a donation to the party. It is illegal under Dutch law for companies to make donations to political parties.
Simpson Miller was not present in court on Monday morning, and the court is to set a date to hear an application to excuse the former prime minister. Her lawyer, K D Knight indicated that an “urgent” application for a court order was filed last week and that the application is supported by an affidavit from Dr Denise Eldemire Shearer, Professor of Public Health and Ageing at the University of the West Indies, Mona.
Two investigators representing the Dutch government are in court.
