Ruling on Leon-Issa’s breach of privacy claim set for Sept 29
Published:Monday | July 24, 2023 | 12:06 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on September 29 whether the parish court erred, on the grounds of a breach of privacy, when it ordered Amoi Leon-Issa to allow investigators access to her cellphone as part of a murder probe.
Arguments were heard on Friday in the High Court by a panel of three judges.
Leon-Issa is seeking to have the Supreme Court quash a judge’s production order granting permission to police to search her phone.
The ruling is to be expected on or before September 29.
During the hearing yesterday, the judges also extended the July 31 deadline at which Leon-Issa was expected to comply with the production order.
She now has until September 29 to give up the records.
Leon-Issa is the mother of nine-year-old Gabriel King, who was murdered along the Tucker main road in St James on January 13.
She reported to the police that her car had been hijacked with the child inside.
The mother has repeatedly failed to provide the passcode to the device in question.
Investigators had expressed a desire to analyse information on the device as part of their investigation into the killing of her autistic son.
The St James Parish Court had ruled that Leon-Issa is not allowed to be present while her phone is being analysed by experts, but her attorney and a technology expert could oversee the process.
The effort to gain access to Leon-Issa’s phone records, through the judicial system, began when the parish court upheld the police’s request for her to allow them access within 48 hours.
That deadline was missed and several others ordered by same court.
The police have threatened to arrest Leon-Issa for failing to comply with court order.
In March, however, the Supreme Court granted a stay of the order to search Leon-Issa’s cellphone following an application by her attorney, Chukwuemeka Cameron.
The attorney requested the stay as they awaited the outcome of the constitutional motion filed on behalf of Leon-Issa challenging the order to search her cellphone.
The attorney argued that the order to search Leon-Issa’s phone is a breach of her right to privacy.
During the exchanges in court, the soon-to-come-on-stream Data Protection Act was referenced on several occasions.
Cameron said his client was feeling good about having her day in court and was awaiting the ruling in September.