KINGSTON Jamaica— Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ legal team has indicated it will appeal a ruling in the Supreme Court handed down on July 31 that blocks the disclosure of certain files in an ongoing legal battle with the Integrity Commission (IC).

Justice Althea Jarrett had granted leave to appeal the decisions handed down in her ruling where she refused an application by the prime minister’s team for disclosure of several unredacted documents and similarly rejected its application to strike out aspects of the Integrity Commission’s Director of Information’s affidavit based on them “being irrelevant and an abuse of process”.

In a statement the IC said the judge held that the evidence is relevant to the claim and that the director of information had a duty to disclose the information.

Holness’ team said “Given the critical importance of the disclosure issues to the overall fairness of the proceedings, the claimants sought and obtained leave to appeal the court’s decision. The court granted leave on the basis that appellate guidance on the correct approach to disclosure in judicial review proceedings would be beneficial to the jurisprudence. Importantly, the court also ordered a stay of the proceedings pending the outcome of the appeal. We will now proceed to prepare and file the necessary documents to advance the appeal.”

Holness’ legal team was granted disclosure of several other documents in the ruling, prepared by three investigators, which his team says are relevant to the investigation; resulting in an order on the Integrity Commission to provide them.

The IC has since indicated it did not seek permission to appeal the judge’s orders “as those orders were largely consistent with its position and the submissions its attorneys made.”

The commission also said it remains ready to defend its position in any appeal which the claimants file.

The stay granted by the judge means the appeal must be heard before other proceedings. The commission says it is now unlikely that the trial of the claim which was scheduled for October 2025 will proceed on that date.

The prime minister has maintained that he has not broken the law since the tabling of an Integrity Commission report in 2024 that contained recommendations that the Financial Investigation Division (FID) and Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) examine his financial dealings.

Holness was granted by the Supreme Court in 2024 leave to apply for judicial review of the Integrity Commission’s (IC) report on his statutory declarations, challenging processes engaged by the IC and its director of investigations, Kevon Stephenson.

The prime minister is seeking a declaration that the commission acted unfairly and unlawfully in its conduct of an investigation into his statutory declarations.