In a dramatic turn of events, the United Kingdom National Crime Agency has confirmed that Police officers, working within the elite Department for International
Development funded Police Unit at the heart of the Ibori and linked prosecutions were corrupt and had withheld substantial material from the defence teams.
The NCA report jointly undertaken by the UK’s top Crown prosecutor – Alison Saunders confirmed that yesterday.
This is a damning and fatal indictment on the prosecution of the Ibori and linked cases, UK Law experts told Elombah.com.
However, the report concludes that the corruption in the case by police officers and their withholding of material does not undermine the safety of the convictions.
“This surprising finding is at odds with the primary findings will now be tested to its fullest in the British courts”, sources close to the Defence stated today.
It is now understood that the Crown Prosecution Service intends to disclose further material which seems to support the claims of corrupt payments to police officers.
DS John McDonald, the officer at the heart of the Ibori investigation received corrupt payments.
Elombah.com learnt that McDonald has been returned to operational duties within the Metropolitan Police Service.
The two fundamental developments in relation to corruption and the withholding of material represent a tremendous victory for Bhadresh Gohil, who has long maintained police corruption and misconduct at the heart of these prosecutions. Gohil has taken the matter before the appeal courts.
Legal experts say the Crown Prosecution’s position is unsustainable.
“It flies in the face of all known constitutional safeguards and undermines every sense of fair and open justice. It cannot be that corrupt police officers and the withholding of Key material permits a fair trial. It is not how the English legal system operates”, says a source.
The Crown prosecutions position is surprising as the report apparently suggests that the Crown Prosecution Service through its legal counsel Sasha Wass QC and Esther Shutzer-Weissman deliberately misled the Court of Appeal.
“The case demonstrates the truly shocking behaviour of the British Crown Prosecution Service. Despite the over whelming evidence of corruption by British anti-corruption officers, it continues to prosecute James Ibori and others when it now has in its possession evidence as to the source of his funds”.
It is believed that Ms Saunders’s position is now untenable. As the Director of Public Prosecutions she has engineered a shocking cover-up.
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