Griffith asks Jacob: Why did you tap my cellphones?

Black Immigrant Daily News

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Gary Griffith. File photo/Sureash Cholai

FORMER police commissioner Gary Griffith sent a pre-action protocol letter to acting Commissioner of Police Mc Donald Jacob on Tuesday for allegedly tapping both hisand his wife’s cellphones.

Griffith spoke at a media conference on Tuesday at the Flament Street, Port of Spain headquarters of the National Transformation Alliance (NTA), which he leads.

He was accompanied by his attorney Larry Lalla, who said tapping Griffith’s phones is illegal, as he has never committed any crimes to justify such an act.

In the letter, dated October 18, Lalla said action is being taken because Jacob exercised his powers under Section 6 of the Interception of Communication Act to initiate the phone tap. As well as threatening to sue Jacob, the letter also said Lalla would take action against the Attorney General, challenging the constitutionality of that section of the law.

It said, “For the immediate purposes of this missive we must put you on notice and frontally allege that your said interception of communication on Mr Griffith’s phones was done and authorised by you unlawfully, irrationally and in breach of your duty.”

Lalla alleged that the phone-tapping was done without any police report of criminality, without any preliminary investigation into Griffith, without the approval of a judge and without any justifiable reason to suspect Griffith committed any criminal offence.

During the media conference, Griffith said as national security adviser he did not envisage the law being used to monitor political opponents of the government. The law was brought to Parliament in 2010 by the People’s Partnership and lays down who may tap phones and under what circumstances.

He said this was done after a previous prime minister allegedly authorised the tapping of cellphones belonging to his political opponents. Griffith said the legislation allowed for any of three people to authorise wire-tapping: the Police Commissioner, director of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) or the Chief of Defence Staff.

He said there are two instances where phones can be tapped: one without a warrant, where the only justification is that there is some “intelligence” that allows it, and the other through a warrant. He intends to have the former removed so that all wiretaps are done solely on the basis of a warrant.

The letter added that since Jacob is a candidate for the post of police commissioner, as is Griffith, the wiretapping is biased and a conflict of interest and therefore should be considered null and void.

At the media conference Griffith said he is calling out Jacob to provide whatever information he has to corroborate why his cellphones are tapped. He said Jacob should have recused himself and presented his intelligence to any of the other two authorised people to facilitate the tapping.

“Tell the public what you have on Gary Griffith to justify that you can invade my privacy, because I can tell you, and again I am telling the country, today is me, tomorrow it could be you. We cannot continue this ‘democratic dictatorship.’”

Asked if during his 37 months as head of the police service he had ever tapped someone’s phone solely on the basis of intelligence, Griffith said no.

“You must have probable cause. You can’t just say, ‘I don’t like Jensen,’ or I just use the word ‘intelligence.’ As Commissioner of Police, the power that is given, if you give an ignorant person power, they will abuse it.”

Griffith denied that Jacob’s “coming clean” on why his phone was being tapped constitutes tipping-off, which under the Proceeds of Crime Act is a criminal offence. He said given that he committed no crimes, tapping his cellphones tantamount to an intrusion on his right to privacy.

Griffith said he was told about his cellphones being tapped some time within the last month. He emphasised that the person who informed him was not “tipping him off” and thereby breaking the law. Griffith said the interception started in May, around the time he launched his political party, and questioned the coincidence.

Newsday called Jacob, who is in the UK on official duties, but all calls went unanswered.

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