{"id":10603,"date":"2018-03-01T00:41:07","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T04:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=10603"},"modified":"2018-03-19T04:45:45","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T08:45:45","slug":"questions-over-shooting-of-gay-man-with-links-to-trinidad-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=10603","title":{"rendered":"Questions over shooting of gay man with links to Trinidad judge"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: MARCH 19, 2018: \u2018Johnson planned hit on WASA official\u2019<\/A><\/big>
\nCJ\u2019s close friend a suspect in 2 murders, says police report sent to UK… <\/B><\/I>
\nACTING Police Commissioner Ste\u00adphen Williams has said it is alleged convicted fraudster Dillian Johnson, a close friend of Chief Justice Ivor Archie, who planned a hit on an official of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA).<\/p>\n

Dillian Johnson fears being killed for sexuality and is seeking asylum in the UK after attack<\/BIG><\/I><\/b><\/p>\n

By Robert Booth
\nWed 28 Feb 2018 09.11 EST – theguardian.com<\/A><\/I><\/p>\n

\"Dillian<\/a>Lawyers in Trinidad and Tobago are challenging the conduct of the country\u2019s top judge, following questions about his relationship with a man who was shot in an ambush and is now seeking asylum in the UK.<\/p>\n

The Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago is investigating allegations involving the chief justice, Ivor Archie, after local media queried his conduct in relation to Dillian Johnson, 36, who survived a night-time shooting outside his home in December. Johnson fled Trinidad to the UK three weeks after the shooting and says he fears for his life if he is forced to return.
\n
\nQuestions have been asked about whether the married judge took Johnson with him to a four-day Commonwealth law conference in Guyana in 2016, and whether he used his office to lobby for state housing for people, including Johnson. It was also alleged that he proposed to his fellow judges that they swap their state-provided personal security officers for others provided by a company that employed Johnson as a consultant.<\/p>\n

Archie has denied the allegations and has accused the law association of being biased against him. He strongly denies any suggestion he knew about a plot to shoot Johnson, saying such claims were \u201cridiculous and false\u201d.<\/p>\n

Archie, 57, is an honorary member of the middle temple bench, one of London\u2019s four inns of court, and is considered a liberal thinker on gay rights. He has denied having an \u201cintimate\u201d relationship with Johnson, a manager for the state water and sewage company who was convicted of forging job references in 2008. Archie\u2019s lawyers declined to say whether he described himself as gay or bisexual as they said it did \u201cnot affect the chief justice\u2019s professional conduct and concern[s] his private life\u201d.<\/p>\n

Johnson was shot outside his home on 3 December and arrived in the UK on 29 December. He says he fears for his life if he returns to his home country and believes he was the victim of a targeted hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fear being murdered for my sexuality if I go back,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cMy relationship with [the chief justice] has been highly publicised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson has complained that police have failed to bring his attacker or attackers to justice. He is being assisted in the UK by the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who said there was \u201cpublic hostility and great stigma attached to homosexuality\u201d in Trinidad and Tobago.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuggery\u201d remains punishable by up to 25 years in prison and six gay men were murdered in the first five months of 2017, according to rights campaigners.<\/p>\n

Last week, a legal challenge was launched to repeal the laws criminalising homosexuality in the Caribbean nation, which has a population of 1.4 million. The UK-based gay rights advocate, Jason Jones, who is leading the case, has said he has received death threats as a result.
\nFull Article : theguardian.com<\/A><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: MARCH 19, 2018: \u2018Johnson planned hit on WASA official\u2019 CJ\u2019s close friend a suspect in 2 murders, says police report sent to UK… ACTING Police Commissioner Ste\u00adphen Williams has said it is alleged convicted fraudster Dillian Johnson, a close friend of Chief Justice Ivor Archie, who planned a hit on an official of the … Continue reading Questions over shooting of gay man with links to Trinidad judge<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1,5,186,178,323],"tags":[1336,1335,187,1319],"class_list":["post-10603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-general-tt","category-international","category-law","category-media","category-sex-general-tt","tag-dillian-johnson","tag-guardian-uk","tag-ivor-archie","tag-law-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10603"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10623,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10603\/revisions\/10623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}