Verdict in former state minister’s IC case pushed back to Dec 17

Former junior foreign minister Leslie Campbell, who is charged with failing to provide information about his income declaration, will have to wait until December 17 to know his fate.

The verdict, which was scheduled for yesterday in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court, was postponed after Parish Judge Paula Blake Powell told the prosecution and the defence that she needed additional time.

Consequently, a new date was fixed and Campbell’s bail was extended.

The former Government senator was charged last year with breaches of the Parliament (Integrity of Members) Act and the Integrity Commission Act, following a recommendation from the Integrity Commission’s (IC) director of corruption prosecution, Keisha Prince-Kameka.

“The defence argued that Mr Campbell submitted all the information relating to his Sagicor bank accounts, and for the period ending December 2019 and September 2020, the Integrity Commission misplaced his documents,” Campbell’s attorney-at-law, Matthew Hyatt, previously told The Gleaner.

Campbell, however, accused the IC of misplacing some of the information for which the commission had charged him for failing to provide.

“Mr Campbell filed all his statutory declarations between 2016 and 2020 as MP. He was frank and open in every declaration and has nothing to hide,” Hyatt had stated.

The defence attorney had also submitted during the trial that Campbell had declared several insurance policies and the copies of these policies were made available to the IC, but indicated that the surrender value for each policy was zero.

Hyatt maintained that his client “did all that was reasonably necessary to satisfy the IC, and his prosecution is baseless, selective and without merit”.

In an investigation report released in June 2023, Director of Investigation Kevon Stephenson said the anti-corruption agency made 39 written requests for Campbell to provide information between 2016 and 2020.

However, Stephenson said the former lawmaker, from the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, only partially complied with the requests.

The IC said that the outstanding information includes the surrender value for two life insurance policies and the account balance linked to a bank loan.

The commission said Campbell provided five responses over the period.

However, Campbell’s attorneys have insisted that he had provided adequate responses to the agency.

The anti-corruption agency had reported Campbell to the leadership of Parliament on February 20, 2017, for non-compliance with the requests.

Campbell, who had requested an urgent review of the decision, contended that he was being asked to submit the surrender value for an insurance policy, Guardian Life Care Plus, which has no surrender value.

Campbell resigned from the Senate last year.

The IC’s report was released in June last year.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com