{"id":173960,"date":"2023-05-17T08:47:36","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T12:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=173960"},"modified":"2023-05-17T08:47:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T12:47:36","slug":"dominica-opposition-wants-answers-from-pm-skerrit-about-choksi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/dominica-opposition-wants-answers-from-pm-skerrit-about-choksi\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominica opposition wants answers from PM Skerrit about Choksi"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Dominica News Online) \u2014 Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, has brushed aside questions raised surrounding the saga of Mehul Choski, who was allegedly kidnapped from Antigua and brought to Dominica, saying the island has no more business with him and it was only a minor matter.<\/p>

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Skerrit was pressed on the incident at a press conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue of Mr Choski\u2026the charges of illegal entry into Dominica were dropped and Mr Choski was allowed to leave Dominica,\u201d Skerrit responded. \u201cSo as far as Dominica is concerned, we have no more business with Mr Choski.\u201d<\/p>

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He went on to say that he doesn\u2019t get involved in \u2018minor matters\u2019 when it comes to crime or law enforcement in Dominica.<\/p>

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\u201cAnd the Choksi matter is a minor thing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have investigations all the time, who coming in illegally and others. So, that\u2019s a minor thing as far as we are concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the President of the United Workers Party (UWP), Lennox Linton, has a different take on the matter. Speaking on local radio station Q95, Linton said the decision to drop the illegal entry charge against Choski was \u201cnothing but a Skerrit-regime move to extricate itself from the scandal.\u201d<\/p>

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According to Linton, the matter is nothing but minor, describing it as a \u201cbig thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Mr Skerrit is claiming that they have no more further business with Mehul Choski, Mehul Choski have further business with the government of Dominica because of a claim that has been filed in the High Court of Dominica on the seventh of March, 2023,\u201d he stated.<\/p>

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Linton said he was surprised that the Prime Minister appeared not to know about the filing because it \u201cis a claim about officers of the state.\u201d<\/p>

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\u201cMehul Choski, in that court filing, was asking the court to rule that he was unlawfully detained, he was wrongfully arrested, falsely imprisoned, assaulted and battered by law enforcement officers in Dominica after he was kidnapped, tortured, ill-treated, forcibly removed from Antigua and Barbuda against his will and ferried to Dominica\u2026\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

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Linton pointed out that four Dominican public officers are named as defendants in the filing to include the Attorney General, who is the chief legal advisor to the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second defendant is the Chief of Police who is responsible for the acts and omission of the officers of the police force,\u201d he stated. \u201cYou will recall Lincoln Corbett, the then Chief of Police, met with Mehul Choski at the Cabrits\u2019 Ferry Terminal on the 24th of May, 2021, and authorized the arrest of Mehul Choksi when he knew, or ought to have known, according to the filings in the court, that the arrest was not justified, the arrest was not lawful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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