Former Delta State governor, James Ibori who is jailed in Britain for
corruption, is likely to appeal against his conviction on the
grounds that British police and lawyers involved in his case were
themselves corrupt, a London court heard on Friday, October 7th.
Ibori, is serving a 13-year
sentence after pleading guilty in 2012 to 10 counts of fraud and
money-laundering.
While in office, Ibori acquired luxury
properties in Britain, the United States, South Africa and Nigeria.
His
jailing in Britain, where he had laundered millions of pounds and sent
his children to an expensive private school, was hailed as a high point
in the international fight against graft and an important signal to
other corrupt politicians.
But his lawyer Ivan Krolick told Southwark Crown Court on
Friday that Ibori was "95 percent certain" to challenge his conviction
in the Court of Appeal based on documents that have only recently been
disclosed to the defence by the prosecution.
At the same hearing,
Stephen Kamlish, a lawyer for Ibori associate and convicted money
launderer Bhadresh Gohil, said the documents showed there had been
widespread police corruption followed by a cover-up that was still going
on now.
The main allegation is that a police officer involved in
the Ibori probe took payments for information in 2007 from a firm of
private detectives working on Ibori's behalf. At the time, Ibori had not
been arrested and was still in Nigeria, but knew that British police
were investigating his finances. Kamlish said prosecution lawyers
had known there was evidence of police corruption but had failed to
disclose it to defence lawyers. Krolick told Reuters on the sidelines of
Friday's court hearing that Ibori did not know about the payments at
the time.
However, the police have
said that the allegation was thoroughly investigated and that no one
was arrested or charged, and no misconduct identified. The officer
against whom the allegations have been made is still in active service.
The
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), after a lengthy internal
investigation, said in September it was confident that the convictions
of Ibori and Gohil remained valid.
The CPS has said it found
"material to support the assertion that a police officer received
payment in return for information".
But the CPS conceded in September that the material should
have been disclosed to the defence, and handed over thousands of
documents to defence lawyers. Those were the documents that Kamlish and
Krolick were referring to in court on Friday.
Gohil has already
filed an appeal against his conviction. Krolick said Ibori was likely to
do so once his legal team had finished going through all the newly
disclosed documents.
As is normal under British procedures, Ibori
is due to be released in December after serving half his sentence,
taking into account pre-trial detention. Gohil, a British former lawyer,
has already been released after serving half of a 10-year term for his
role in laundering Ibori's millions.
One of Ibori's lawyers told
Reuters it was not clear whether he would be able to return to Nigeria
immediately, because legal proceedings concerning the confiscation of
assets of his, worth tens of millions of dollars, were unresolved. They
were supposed to have been resolved years ago, but have ground to a
halt due to the allegations of police corruption and the prospect of
Ibori taking his case to the Court of Appeal.
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