The Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) has won a case against policemen who had challenged the authority of the investigative body.
The Appeal Court ruled Friday morning that INDECOM was within its power to reject an application by Deputy Superintendent Everton Tabannah and Constable Worrell Latchman for the agency to disclose how it arrived at its decision to recommend that criminal charges be laid against them.
INDECOM had ruled that DSP Tabannah be charged with giving misleading statement to the investigative body during a probe into a fatal shooting in Rose Heights, St. James in October 2012.
Constable Latchman was to be charged with the murder of Donald Chin in the incident.
However, the policemen and their attorneys challenged INDECOM.
They had requested that the agency provide them the source material it gathered in arriving at its recommendation that they be charged.
The cops argued that they had a right to full disclosure and applied to the Supreme Court for judicial review of the INDECOM recommendation.
The Police Commissioner at the time also requested copies of INDECOM’s source material.
INDECOM rejected the requests, stating that the information would be disclosed when the men are charged.
However, in 2016, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of DSP Tabannah and Constable Latchman and stated that the matter should go to judicial review.
INDECOM filed an appeal and the Appeal Court on Friday morning ruled that the Supreme Court decision against the agency should be set aside.
The application for leave for judicial review and an injunction to block the arrest of the policemen were refused.