Queen’s Counsel K D Knight on Monday objected to a request by prosecutors to have two Dutch investigators assigned to the 16-year Trafigura case sit in chambers on Wednesday when deliberations take place to decide if former People’s National Party (PNP) President and Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller will be excused as a witness in the matter.

Knight, the attorney representing Simpson Miller, filed an application to have his client excused from giving evidence in the case due to medical reasons.

The two Dutch investigators, Gerard Borhols and Ronald Steen, were present in court on Monday as PNP supporter Norton Hinds and former energy minister Phillip Paulwell took the witness stand to have questions bowled at them in open court, regarding the 2006 three-part transfer of $31 million to a bank account under the name Colin Campbell Our Candidate (CCOC). Paulwell will continue to answer questions in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

If Simpson Miller is excused, the other remaining witnesses in the matter would be Colin Campbell and Robert Pickergill.

When prosecutor Andrea Martin-Swaby requested that Justice Stephanie Jackson-Haislay allow Steen and Borhols in the session, Knight was swift to say, “no, no, no, no!”

However, Justice Jackson-Haislay said the way forward would be determined by the Courts.

In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that Simpson Miller, as well as Paulwell, Pickersgill, Campbell and Hinds 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.