Published 16 May 2018
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
By: Media Source
Placard-bearing demonstrators keep PM Timothy Harris away from his Church Street Office Wednesday morning
Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 16, 2018 – St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris stayed away from his Church Street office in Basseterre on Wednesday morning after he was informed there were several demonstrators outside calling for his resignation.
“He definitely kept far from his office and stayed away. His P3 was seen driving around this morning in the Frigate Bay area,” a reliable source said.
On Monday, Leader of the Opposition, the Right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas called for the “immediate resignation” of Dr. Harris.
Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Shawn Richards walked in front of the demonstrators dressed in plain clothes. Senior Minister Hon. Vance Amory alighted from a police-driven car and went into Government Headquarters but left later through the garage accompanied by a visitor who came minutes after his arrival.
The placard-bearing demonstrators want Harris to resign after the release of secretly taped telephone calls emerged in a judgment in a British Court last Friday (May 11, 2018) in which property tycoon Peter Singh Virdee is accused of bribing Harris and Caribbean politicians.
In one of the transcripts Prime Minister Harris begs a watch and a pair of shoes. In another transcript reference is made to a request for $2 million by “our friend” for a St. Kitts energy deal.
The British High Court transcripts appeared subject to a court hearing and were produced from surveillance recordings made by German police after they suspected Peter Virdee of being involved in tax fraud. The German tapes were handed over to the National Crime Agency (NCA) in the UK who began their own criminal investigation into the allegations of Bribery of Timothy Harris and other Caribbean politicians.
According to the judgment of the court in London, the National Crime Agency in the UK alleges in its case that the intercepted conversations legally obtained by the German police implicated the Mr. Virdee and his partner in ‘conspiring to bribe corrupt officials; indicated that they had discussed bribes demanded by and paid to the Antiguan Minister for Development and the Prime Minister of. St Kitts; and included a recording of a conversation between the claimants [that is, Mr. Virdee and his partner] and the Antiguan Minister negotiating the amount of money due to the Minister personally for introducing Mr. Virdee to officials of St. Lucia and [of] St. Kitts.’
“The most damning piece of information yet before the high court in London were transcripts of a conversation on 12th March, 2016, in which Peter Virdee allegedly told his business partner, that the Prime Minister of St Kitts, Timothy Harris, was visiting [London] and said of Prime Minister Harris… I quote: ‘I am taking him 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 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, and I quote’: ‘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 even further [quote] ………I am going to have a very frank conversation with him (Dr. Harris), 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 (Dr. Harris) 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…”
“Peter Virdee went on to tell his partner Mr. Trutschler in the telephone conversation that he was on his way to Selfridge’s to look for a watch, presumably for Prime Minister Harris. “I had my guy out looking yesterday but they are just out of the budget I want to spend on him. I don’t really want to be spending more than like 2,000 pounds on him, on a watch.”
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