Published 14 May 2018
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
Attempt by PM Harris to mislead the nation exposed; did not challenge his conversation with Peter Virdee
Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 14, 2018 – An official statement Sunday from Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris that the judgment of the English High Court on allegations that Peter Virdee and Dieter Trutschler engaged in bribery involving him and other Caribbean officials references 2014 and not since he became Prime Minister on February 18, 2015 is not only totally misleading but also grossly dishonest.
Dr. Harris’ statement not only steered clear of mentioning the transcripts but also did not deny they were false.
The transcripts were produced in the London court of an intercepted March 12, 2016 conversation legally obtained by the German police in which Mr Virdee told his business partner, that the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, Dr. Timothy Harris, was in the British capital and planned to meet him for dinner.
The date March 12th 2016 coincides with a visit that Prime Minister Harris made to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates from March 8 to 10, 2016.
A St. Kitts-Nevis Information Service (SKNIS) news release states: “Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris has led a delegation to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), to attend an Investment Immigration Summit to be held at the Shangri-La Hotel from March 8-10, 2016.”
Dr. Harris was in London, the British capital on March 12, 2016 on his way back from Dubai.
The transcript of the conversation in the High Court ruling in London records Mr. Virdee informing Mr. Dieter Trutschler as follows: “I am taking him (Dr. Harris) and his entourage out for dinner this evening and then we have an after-party, so be ready for a big bill, but in the interim he (Dr. Harris) said he would like a nice watch. I said ‘okay.’ And then he (Dr. Harris) called me this morning [Saturday 12th March, 2016] and he said ‘Have you got my watch?’ I said ‘Oh I have got to pick your watch up’…. I spoke to him last Saturday, last Sunday at the airport hotel when he was in transit to Dubai and he said ‘Look, I am in favour of this, I will send my minister down.’
Mr. Virdee continued his telephone conversation by saying: ‘I had a very stiff conversation with him, to the point I said: ‘Listen, you have got another 3, 3 and a half years. In 2 years’ time you are going to start your election campaign, you are going to come to me and say ‘Peter Virdee, I need some election funding’ and I am going to say ‘PM I can’t help you, if I have not earned anything from this country’ and then you are going to get upset and then we are going to fall out, so it is your call, how do you want to do this. ‘
The billionaire businessman continued: “I am going to have a very frank conversation with him, I mean as frank as I can get, and today’s conversation is going to be ‘Yes we are going to be in St. Kitts’ or ‘No, we are not going to be in that region’, simple, because I have not got time to go and entertain and go and meet him at airports and take him out for lunches and take eight of them out for dinner, and buy him a watch and buy him this and buy him shoes. I haven’t got time for that. Now, I don’t mind nurturing a relationship, the guy is in power today…”
How then can Prime Minister Harris in his attempt at damage control hoodwink the people of St. Kitts and Nevis state in his official statement on Sunday: “The judgment references a period of time beginning in 2014. Prime Minister Harris cannot speak to what may have occurred prior to his assumption of office of the Prime Minister on February 18th, 2015.”
Photo 1 – Dr. Timothy Harris
Photo 2 – Mr. Peter Virdee
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