Jamaica: Former Prime Minister Bruce Golding testifies before commission examining the “Dudus” raid

Former Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding testified Monday that he personally knew an underworld boss who ran a notorious slum fiefdom from his parliamentary riding but stopped communicating with him roughly 3 years before the United States sought his extradition.

Testifying before a fact-finding commission in the Jamaican capital, examining a bloody May 2010 raid by security forces, Golding said he “cut off all communication” with Christopher “Dudus” Coke in December 2007 when he was informed by police that gangsters were seeking refuge in his slum stronghold. As a West Kingston community “don,” Coke had long acted as an ad hoc civic leader at the same time he led the feared “Shower Posse” crime gang.

Golding said he was “not aware” if other officials had any conversations with Coke after the U.S. requested his extradition on gun and drug trafficking charges in August 2009. However, Golding’s administration resisted the extradition request for nine months, arguing Coke’s indictment relied on illegal wiretap evidence. The stance strained relations with Washington.

Golding’s administration eventually dropped its resistance to the extradition.

The May 2010 hunt for Coke in West Kingston killed at least 76 civilians over a couple of days. The country’s former public defender has said 44 of those may have been unjustifiable homicides. One soldier was killed.

While Golding acknowledged that Coke was a “strong supporter” of his Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) and was an influential figure in his West Kingston riding, he asserted Monday that his administration’s objections to the extradition were solely based on the merits of the legal case. “It proved almost impossible to convince persons, the society at large, that the legal and constitutional issues we were pursuing were not a facade for protecting someone who was connected to the JLP,” Golding testified.

At the time, Golding went so far as instructing a JLP insider to retain lobbyists to contest Coke’s extradition even amid reports that his (Coke’s) supporters were stockpiling weapons to prevent his arrest. The entire episode led to Golding’s resignation as leader in 2011.

Golding’s testimony on Monday comes 2 months after the fact-finding commission was convened. The panel of two retired judges and a university professor is supposed to present a report and recommendations to the country’s Governor-general, Patrick Allen. It’s not yet clear whether any judicial proceeding will follow the testimony.

Source: Associated Press