Justice For All?

THREE cheers for whoever was responsible for oiling the wheels of justice so well that it delivered freedom for a Frenchman, Eric Sommer, who had been on remand at Bordelais for four years. But it does raise a whole lot of questions, doesn’t it.

We talk here about the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers, and some take offence at the slightest suggestion that courts and judges can be influenced from outside in dispensing justice, but the questions will be asked, especially about the fairness of the system and the double standards it sometimes perpetuates.

Sommer had a murder charge laid against him for the alleged murder of a Saint Lucian reduced to manslaughter. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge and received a four year sentence which translated into the time he had already served. In the blink of an eye, he was out of there. Swift justice. But the three hundred or so St Lucians still on remand at Bordelais will be asking: “What about us”? And with good reason, because all are supposed to be equal under the law.

Let’s state upfront that St Lucia violated the human rights of this Frenchman by keeping him locked away without trial for so long, the same way it continues today to deny rights to its own citizens who are at Bordelais in similar circumstances. Some of them have been on remand for twice as long as Sommer and still cannot get a hearing, far less their freedom. In fact, they have now been disadvantaged on two counts: first, by being held for so long without trial and secondly, by being discriminated against as a result of Sommer being set free.

No one needs to be told that the pressure placed on the government by the European Union, and France in particular, over the state of justice in the country, was the influencing factor in Sommer getting his freedom. Diplomacy was employed and achieved almost instant results. And what about the timing, coming close to the deadline agreed to between Prime Minister Anthony and a European delegation in January for there to be movement on EU concerns about the state of the IMPACS matter and the long delay in bringing prisoners to trial?

What the Sommer decision proves, however, is that there can be movement in the appalling state of the penal system and the administration justice in St Lucia if the powers that be would only continue to demonstrate the same kind of resolve that sprung this Frenchman from Bordelais this week. We wait with bated breath to see whether this was a stand-alone case of favouritism or the beginning of a determined attempt to process remand prisoners and give them their day in court, thereby ensuring justice for all.

St Lucians are tired of the empty promises that are made from time to time about attending to the deficiencies in the system that have brought our country under the international microscope as a violator of human rights. In another country, the Minister of Home Affairs would have long been made to resign over the deterioration of so many services over which he was given responsibility that have combined to give our country a bad name. But this is St Lucia where no one accounts and no one is held accountable.

Yesterday the French Embassy issued a terse statement on the Eric Sommer matter. It read: “After four years, the Sommer case is closed.

“The trial which was anticipated by the French authorities, at the highest level, was finally held and led to the release of Eric Sommer.

“Mr. Sommer left Saint Lucia that night”.

As we say, it was swift justice….but not justice for all.