Ex-Op Tempura chief can make his complaint public
All of the legal manoeuvring over whether a complaint filed over the ill-fated Operation Tempura corruption investigation can be made public is apparently not required.
According to Cayman Islands Governor Duncan Taylor’s office, former Tempura Senior Investigating Officer Martin Bridger – who took ownership of the complaint in late 2010 – can release it anytime he wants.
Mr. Bridger has previously said that he promised confidentiality to Mr. Taylor with regard to his initial complaint, as well as a 185-page review of the matter ordered by the governor’s office.
Last week, governor’s office staffer Tom Hines said that was not true.
“The confidentiality agreement which Mr. Bridger entered into applies only to the governor’s response to the complaint,” Mr. Hines wrote. “As the owner of the complaint document, Mr. Bridger is free to do what he wishes with it.”
In response to what the governor’s office stated, Mr. Bridger sent a copy of what he had agreed to the Caymanian Compass:
“I, Martin Bridger, undertake that if I am provided with written reasons by His Excellency Duncan Taylor CBE, Governor of the Cayman Islands, into his conclusions in respect of my complaint into aspects of Operation Tempura, I will not disclose such reasons to any person orally, in writing, or by any other means of communication, other than lawyers whom I have instructed to advise me in respect of my complaint.”
The former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent clarified Friday that he was aware he could, at least theoretically release his own complaint. However, Mr. Bridger pointed out that in the same e-mail documenting the confidentiality agreement, the governor’s office also included the following statement:
“The governor … is concerned that aspects of your original complaint together with any proposed written reasons [he provides] may contain material which may be viewed as libellous and scandalising the judiciary. The governor is concerned to ensure that neither you nor he is in any way considered to be publishing your document or the written reasons.”
Mr. Bridger said he felt that the governor’s office was warning him off making public the document, which according to UK news reports, also makes claims of wrong-doing against certain representatives of the Cayman Islands attorney general’s office.
When asked by the Caymanian Compass about the complaint document, Mr. Bridger said he would consider releasing it given proper legal assurances.
An open records applicant under the Cayman Islands Freedom of Information Law, UK citizen John Evans, had asked for a copy of a complaint made in 2010 by former Tempura legal adviser Martin Polaine and carried forward by Mr. Bridger. The request also seeks the subsequent evaluation of that complaint done by Mr. Taylor’s office.
The request was initially denied by Mr. Taylor, but that decision was overturned by Cayman Islands Information Commissioner Jennifer Dilbert. Mr. Taylor then challenged Mrs. Dilbert’s ruling as “unreasonable” in a judicial review application filed with the court earlier this year.
However, on Friday, 1 March, Mr. Evans abruptly asked for his open records request to be withdrawn and that the matter be ended. The governor’s office and the information commissioner are set to go to court later this year.
“I am now satisfied that no useful purpose will be served by wasting what is likely to be a substantial amount of public money pursuing this any further,” Mr. Evans wrote in a letter to Governor Taylor’s staff officer Tom Hines. “I am … not convinced that the case presented by the information commissioner is sufficiently robust to secure the release of the requested documents.”
It remained unclear at press time what would happen to the judicial review matter.
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Ladies and Gentleman. Please take time to carefully read the above.
Governor: Bridger can release documents.
Is it not just a big stack of misleading confusion to mislead the reading public?. Who is sleeping with the enemy here anyway?. It boils down to yesterdays hot topic. SECRET SOCIETY These people are all connected working with each other and the public will never know the whole truth. Bridger, John, The Governor, Judge Jury, Polaine and especially the LEGAL DEPARTMENT. I would like them to publicly deny having any involvement with the MASONIC LODGE.
Cayman is gone to the dogs,we have no men to turn to on this planet. It is just a matter of time to be introduced to THE NEW WORLD ORDER.
Hunter, I have no problem with replying to your allegation. I am not, nor have I ever been, a freemason. In fact in 1990/1 I was involved in a lengthy investigation into potentially corrupt connections between senior officers in a UK police force and local freemasons so am not exactly on their Christmas list.
The fact that we are even still debating the release of these documents just amazes me. They should have been made public months ago.
In January 2011 the Financial Times published this comment – The nub of Mr Polaine’s and Mr Bridger’s argument, seen by the Financial Times, is that Tempura was checkmated by the questionable behaviour of individuals involved in the case.
At that point details of the complaint had clearly been released and the document had technically gone public. Although the original story (which I have a copy of) is no longer showing on the FT website an abridged version can be found at – http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/63e415ac-1e87-11e0-87d2-00144feab49a.html#axzz2NPt0ljib
The situation as I understand it right now is that if Martin Bridger (or Martin Polaine who actually wrote the document) now releases the original complaint the Governor will then be forced to release the Aina report, which has been the object of this exercise from the start.
In previous correspondence with both myself and the Compass Mr Polaine has consistently refused to hand over a copy of the complaint. Hopefully, this will help to change the situation because then we can all move forward.
I have been a Mason for some time (albeit here in Canada), and I have never seen the kind of behaviour you ascribe to local Masons. The bad guys don’t need to meet in a Masonic Temple, with many others around- they meet in local restaurants, or on the golf course, or at a private residence. It seems you are tarring all the members of this Fraternal Association with the same brush- a rather ignoble thing to do. The Masons I have met, to a man, hold the common good ahead of personal gain. I’m sure it’s similar in Cayman, and when I come here to live, I would be delighted to attend their meetings. Hunter and others, please re-consider your position. The Masons are not the problem here.
Woodie, that’s a very good comment. I will happily concede that I have friends in the USA who are freemasons and very proud of the fact that their movement contributes to the good of the community.
This is getting a bit off topic but for good reason I will comment on it here.
In the UK things appear to have got a bit twisted over the years. We have even reached a situation where on certain police investigations all officers involved have been made to sign declarations that they had no masonic connections because of potential conflicts of interests.
There is a lengthy catalogue (including the work I did in 1990/1) of areas where conflicts have emerged between public duty and private commitments in this respect. At least one national newspaper over here believes that the Tempura investigation had similar issues.
In recent years, and after serious moves to rectify the problems, these arguments all came back to haunt freemasonry in the UK when arrests during Operations Eleveden, Weeting and others started to turn up well-documented masonic connections.
Woodie, there are Masons that know and Masons that dont know. The Masons that dont know outnumber the Masons at top that know.
I hope that explains why you see the bright side only.
I stand by my previous comments. It may well have happened that the miscreants were also Masons- but being a Mason does not make one a miscreant. Would you folks pen the same comments about Rotarians, Kiwanas, or Shriners? A little tolerance can go a long way.
Woodie, again those are fair comments but Rotarians and Kiwanas (never had any dealings with Shriners) conduct their affairs in public whereas freemasons in the UK tend to keep their activities secret.
As an example – In 1990 a representative of the police force I was investigating were adamant they had no freemasons in their ranks. The problem with that was we had already quietly photographed six senior officers leaving a masonic event, including that representative.
Since those days there has been a determined, and very commendable, effort by some of the lodges to open up their activities to the public. However, the secrecy still exists and the majority of lodges that still operate behind closed doors are doing the rest of your movement no favours at all.
Rather than being in denial why not come out on the side of complete openness? That way you shut down the miscreants and make it impossible for their activities to taint freemasonry in general.
Please stop wasting your time. I am not, have not been and never will be a freemason.The issues raised in my complaint and the findings of the Governor include a number of serious issues that in my view should be made available to the public. Since I left the Cayman Islands a number of efforts continue to be made to prevent me from revealing the the truth about Operatin Tempura. I understand that I could put my complaint in the public domain now, but I then run the risk of being sued again. I have the evidence to justify my actions at the time, however your government have taken me to court to prevent me from using this evidence, what does that tell you. I do not intend to give up my intention to have all matters scrutinised by the public. Perhaps those who continue to comment on the Tempura issues as they appear in the news media should actually start supporting my desire for accountability and transparency, values that the FCO and your government claim to uphold.
How does everyone feel about the Freemasons’ choice of an Argentinian as the next Pope?
Martin, why will you not just let me have a copy of the complaint to work with. You have my email address and unless you plan to return to the Cayman Islands or still have assets out there how can they sue you?
It is very difficult, as I am sure you know, to extend a fairly trivial civil action out of one jurisdiction into another. In any event I suspect anything like that is out of time anyway. Bottom line, I do not see how you can be sued.
Same goes for the gagging order on the Aina report. It might, on a good day, hold up in the Grand Court but in the UK I do not see how you can be touched if you release it. Further, because both documents contain personal information you, or your legal advisors, could in theory be obliged under the Data Protection Act to release copies to those named therein.
You and Martin Polaine have always had my total support for a full inquiry into what really happened in 2007/8/9. The problem is you want that inquiry run on your own terms not as a completely open investigation into all aspects of this.
This is really put up or shut up time. The Governor has given a clear indication that if the original complaint is released then the Aina report also becomes a public document. Why will you not take up this offer? If you are worried about any sort of legal action against you in the Cayman Islands just testify by videolink?