Roseau, Dominica (TDN)
Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit continues to resist calls to declare to the Dominican public the amount paid to a legal team from Trinidad and Tobago responsible for prosecuting opposition party members in the country’s courts.
The team led by Senior Counsel Israel Khan were contracted by the government of Dominica after the arrests of senior members of the United Workers Party (UWP), following a public rally on 07 February 2017.
Then UWP leader Hon Lennox Linton along with former Prime Minister Edison James and Senator Dr Thomson Fontaine were arrested days after the public rally which called for the resignation of the Prime Minister.
The three senior UWP leaders were originally accused of attempting to overthrow the government of Dominica before being charged with incitement. Dr Fontaine was additionally charged with obstruction.
At a government press conference held on 28 April 2025, Prime Minister Skerrit was asked to disclose the full cost to the taxpayers for the eight-year prosecution of the three UWP executive members.
He stubbornly refused to disclose the amount paid choosing instead to ask the UWP where it had received funding to pay over US $400 000 to a senior counsel to bring a lawsuit against the government, to account for the proceeds of the funds received through the sale of Dominican passports.
In a swift response to the Prime Minister, Dr Fontaine who is now Political Leader of the UWP pointed out that the true cost to date for the lawsuit brought against the government is US $50 000. He then urged the Prime Minister to come clean with the public and reveal the true cost, which Fontaine says he believes runs in hundreds of thousands of dollars.
More than eight years after the charges were brought, a High Court judge denied the prosecution request to have the defendants indicted and summarily dismissed the charges against all three men.
The judge also warned the prosecution not to raise any new charges linked to the events of 07 February 2017 while lamenting the complete lack of evidence in the matter, and “a complete abuse of the courts process”.
