Scott Chipolina retweetledi
The rule of law is a precious and fragile thing.
I don’t think I really understood this until I spent over five years acting for the (now) former Commissioner of the Royal Gibraltar Police, Ian McGrail.
After 35 years of loyal service to the RGP and the people of Gibraltar, Mr McGrail was forced out of his job after the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, made a series of “grossly improper” and “sinister” interventions in a highly sensitive police investigation into the alleged hacking of Gibraltar’s national security system, all to protect his friend and business partner. Mr Picardo also “deliberately and cynically” misled Gibraltar’s Police Authority to engineer Mr McGrail’s removal.
All of this may sound like the plot to a movie, but it happened, and these were all findings of the public inquiry chaired by Sir Peter Openshaw, a retired High Court Judge, which reported a month ago today.
Having lived through this for over five years with my client (and the excellent legal team of Charles Gomez, Nicholas Gomez and Daniel Benyunes), I can tell you that at times this was an extremely unnerving experience, as it became clear what happens when the rule of law begins to crumble, and institutions and individuals you would usually expect to rely on as independent restraints on misconduct turn out to be weak or compromised - or both. This is not unique to Gibraltar, it is happening in many places. But seeing it up close is very different to seeing it on the news.
And, all of this took place in a British Overseas Territory, which has an independent Parliament and strongly drafted Constitution, but where the British state, through the Governor, remains responsible for “peace, order and good governance”. Unfortunately, the Governor at the time failed to discharge his responsibility because - as the report found - he oversaw a completely unfair process leading ultimately to Mr McGrail being “forced out”.
Meanwhile, the Governor and British Government have said nothing about the extremely serious finding nor have they accepted responsible for what happened to Mr McGrail. They have remained studiously silent about the fact that the Chief Minister has, since the report was published, falsely and ridiculously claimed to have been “vindicated”. It is frankly absurd, and reckless, that he, of all people, will be responsible for implementing the Inquiry’s important recommendations whilst he continues to reject the underlying findings which led to them.
In amongst all of this, where so many institutional actors failed (and continue to fail) to stand up against flagrant abuses of power, @TransparencyUK, the world’s leading anti-corruption NGO, has remained steadfast. It continues to say it as it is, and for that I am thankful.
Their statement from today, which highlights the UK Government’s continuing approach of burying its head in the sand, is below.
transparency.org.uk/news/uk-must-a…
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