BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AS investigations into the Chinese economic citizen’s issue are ongoing, a new twist has been added to the saga as a former Commissioner of Police has claimed that then Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas was not aware that Interpol had issued a notice of a wanted man entering the Federation.
In an exclusive interview with WIC News, former Commissioner of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force, Dr. Celvin ‘CG’ Walwyn said that the agency did receive information from Interpol that two individuals were expected to arrive in St. Kitts.
The media outlet noted that Walwyn had ruled out Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris’ claim that Dr. Douglas was aware and should have taken action.
It however stated that while unwilling to name the suspected Chinese national, Walwyn said: “We received notice from Interpol and the Special Branch Unit that there were two guys on a plane flying in from England. We looked at the guys when they arrived. We noted that they were leaving in three days and told Special Branch to contact Interpol and let them know that the pair were flying back through England and could be dealt with from there onwards within the week.”
The former Commissioner reportedly added: “We did not bring it to the attention of the prime minister – who was also minister of national security – because it was not an issue regarding national security. There was no need to.
“Our decision was a law enforcement decision. Let them get back on the plane and notify Interpol. That’s what happened.”
WIC News also asked Walwyn about dishonest acts behind the scenes, to which he said: “There could not have been a cover-up.”
Last week Wednesday (May 3), Carib Update News Service reported that Chinese diplomatic officials had claimed that one of their nationals is being harboured in St. Kitts and that Beijing said they have had no cooperation from the Government of Prime Minister Timothy Harris on the issue.
“China is claiming that the man bought a Kittitian passport under that country’s controversial Citizenship by Investment Programme. He has been accused of swindling over US$100M from a Chinese-state firm,” Carib Update reported.
The regional media house also reported that: “Chinese diplomatic sources said that in intercepted communication on April 16, said that the man called relatives in Beijing seeking an additional 190,000 US dollars to help to continue pay for what he reportedly described as his protection by Kittitian authorities.”
Since then, Dr. Douglas and other members of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party had cast the blame on the tri-party Team Unity Administration and called for the resignation of PM Harris.
However, in response, Dr. Harris had claimed that the issue is another act of distraction, deception and dishonesty of the former Administration and that right-thinking people would not be fooled.
“The difficulties that we had dealing now are part of the bad inheritance of the Denzil Douglas regime. That government, headed by Denzil Douglas, had become a pariah in the eyes of the international community, and it is therefore strange that he who had brought the country into disrepute, he who ensured that the country’s good name was sullied time after time would now want to come and to hypocritically profess to have concern about the country and the country’s programme,” Harris said.
He stated that it was the Labour Administration that provided citizenship to the man who is in the center of the scandal, Ren Biao, and also to his family, and not the Government of National Unity.
“...These persons were never facilitated by the Team Unity Administration. And you must ask yourself, did the Dr. Denzil Douglas Administration know what they were doing when they accorded citizenship to these Chinese persons. Did they do their good work on behalf of the people, or there were other motivations?
“I will say in my view there appears to have been other motivations. And the clamour which they are attempting to raise to distract from their fallout march, the smallest march on record. And after Labour Day their story is not about the failed march, their story is about two Chinese, they say, who are here and who they claim the government should handover.
“So, we must ask them, why didn’t you hand them over? And, in the first place, if you had not given them their citizenship they would not be here to become the subject of a conversation. They gave them their passports; but not only that, the Denzil Douglas Administration was careful enough to give them passports without the country of origin field.”
He stressed that it was a serious and dangerous act on behalf of the former Administration, claiming that they were warned by the US Government not to have issued passports that did not bear the country of origin field.
