Former police commissioner Gary Griffith has requested that he be given a copy of the recent firearms users licence (FUL) audit report and be allowed to subsequently to respond to it.
Griffith made the request through his attorneys, Larry Lalla and Avery Sinanan SC, via a letters dated August 29th.
The letters were sent to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and to the Justice Judith Jones-led Police Service Commission (PolSC).
In the letters, Griffith expressed concern that he was never afforded an opportunity to respond.
His lawyers have also threatened legal action if the report is laid in Parliament.
Lalla also requested that the PolSC not take the contents of the FUL report into consideration with respect to Griffith’s application for Police Commissioner.
Griffith, in a Trinidad Express report said that it would be hypocritical of Dr Rowley to deny him the opportunity to respond given the Prime Minister’s claim in the “Landate” matter.
Griffith noted that when allegations were hurled at Dr Rowley in that matter, he cited the lack of natural justice and that he was not given the opportunity to be heard which forced the matter to be thrown out.
In July, Rowley said he had received the report, which “makes for very disturbing reading”, which he will send to the PolSC.
The Prime Minister also indicated that the executive summary of the report will be laid in Parliament.
Last month, Rowley cited the report as he justified his comment that supporting the appointment of Griffith as Police Commissioner was the “biggest mistake” he had made in his life.
The attorneys said should the Prime Minister lay the report’s executive summary in Parliament without Griffith having the right to respond would result in unacceptable and unwarranted damage to his professional reputation and good name.
The attorneys requested a written undertaking of this from the Prime Minister by 4 p.m. tomorrow (September 2), failing which they will seek injunctive relief from the courts.
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