Trinidad CJ Fights Back, Questionable Photos Declared ‘Fake’

Ivor Archie

In regional news…we have been reporting on Chief Justice of Trinidad and Tobago Ivor Archie, who has come under fire from the Trinidad and Tobago Law Association. Today, he instructed his legal team to demand a retraction and apology from the Trinidad Express newspaper for a series of articles which he says defamed him. Chief Justice Archie is under scrutiny from the association over allegations of misconduct in office, which could see him referred to Prime Minister Keith Rowley to consider impeachment under the republic’s constitution. The probe is being led by Belize’s Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay and president of the Grenada Bar Association Francis Alexis, commissioned by Association president and former Belize Court of Appeal judge Douglas Mendes. According to Trinidad Newsday, the lawyers write that U.S. experts who reviewed photographs released by Archie associate and convicted felon Dillian Johnson found them to be photo-shopped and fake, as were Whatsapp messages he allegedly sent claiming his life had been threatened. Johnson was at last report in the United Kingdom claiming political asylum. Attorney Raisa Caesar called upon the Express to respond within forty-eight hours of their writing earlier this week, to take down the articles and undertake not to republish the photographs. Caesar, who issued the letter, told Newsday the aim of the correspondence was to have the matter settled without Archie having to initiate legal proceedings. Archie is further accused of discussing the security arrangements for judges with a private company and of purported recommendations for accelerated housing to the Housing Development Corporation on behalf of certain friends, charges he denies.