British Govt lawyers fail to keep Ibori in further detention
*James Ibori
At 12. 20 p.m., Wednesday, Her Honour, Mrs. Justice Juliet May, Queen’s Counsel, dropped her verdict; she ordered the immediate release of Chief James Ibori, said a statement by Ibori’s Media Assistant, Tony Eluemunor.
With that Ibori’s lawyers won a major victory against the
British Home Office, at the Royal Court of Justice, Queens Court 1, London, by
successfully challenging the decision not to release Ibori who was due for
freedom on December 20, after serving
his sentence.
In a curious move, the British Home Office, instead of
releasing Ibori on December 20, informed him that he would be detained on the
grounds that his confiscation hearing had not been concluded.
So, in court, Ibori’s lawyers exposed the injustice in the
indefinite detention the Home Office had planned for Ibori.
They told the Judge that there were no grounds in law under
which Ibori could be detained and that his detention for one day by the Home
office was unlawful.
The statement added that “Therefore, there was high drama in
the British High Court as senior lawyers for the UK’s Home Office failed in
their last minute bid to prevent Ibori’s release. The apparent decision to block Ibori’s
release and detain him appears to have come from the highest echelons of the UK
Government - the Home Secretary who was accused in today’s hearing of acting
unlawfully and misusing her powers.
Sian Davies, the Crown Prosecution lawyer did not object to
Ibori’s release and return to Nigeria, yet at the last minute the Home Office
stepped in. There is clear discord between the two arms of the British
Government.”
Ibori’s team was led by Ian McDonald QC, the leading QC on
immigration.
The visibly irritated Judge could not understand the Home
Secretary’s position and at times was critical of the move to detain Ibori any
further.
Mrs Justice May rejected the Home Secretary’s requests for
conditions to be imposed and ordered Ibori’s immediate release.
Ivan Krolic, who also attended, explained that Ibori’s
confiscation proceedings collapsed in 2013, after the Prosecution was unable to
establish any theft from the Delta State and any benefit for Ibori, from
anywhere.
A three-week hearing which heard live evidence was abandoned
by the prosecutors – Wass QC and Shutzer-Weissman. Both prosecutors have since
been dismissed from the case for gross misconduct.
Krollic further explained that British police officers in
the case led by DC McDonald, have again been referred to the Independent Public
Complaints Commission and now face a thorough investigation into their corrupt
activities in this case. The CPS has confirmed officers in the case were
corrupt. It has since disclosed substantial material evidencing the graft.
Ibori and others have long maintained that this prosecution
was politically motivated. It was funded by the UK’s Department for
International Development, DFID, whose senior employee was also the jury
foreperson in one of the earlier trials.
The Ibori case has been plagued with British police
corruption, exceptional prosecutorial misconduct and fundamental
non-disclosure.
A multitude of Appeals have now been launched or are in the
process of being launched.
Eluemunor added that across the nation, there were spontaneous
eruptions of celebrations by Ibori’s supporters, especially in Asaba and
Oghara, where people poured out into the streets to celebrate the good news
that their champion has regained his freedom.
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