Lawyers: Reinstate top cop or else . . .

CASTRIES – Lawyers for former police commissioner, Ausbert Regis, have told the St Lucia government to re-instate their client this week or face legal action.
Prime Minister Stephenson King last week announced that Regis had been transferred to the post of director of initiatives in the office of the prime minister as part of the restructuring of the police force.
But Regis has not taken up the post and his attorneys, Peter Foster of St Lucia and Dominican Queen Counsel Anthony Astaphan, have written to the government requesting his reinstatement as Police Commissioner by tomorrow.
“If that does not come about then the matter will have to go to court and we intend to attack it root, stem and branch because we have information which suggests that the decision was made in Cabinet prior to any made by the Public Police Service Commission,” the lawyers said.
“. . . we are going to have to find out from the Public Police Service Commission what information they acted on to come to the conclusion that the transfer of Regis was in the best interest of the police force.
“They will have to come absolutely clean with that,” Astaphan told reporters.
The lawyers have also copied their letters to the governor general and the minister for home affairs. They claim that the removal of Regis is tantamount to the decapitation of the police force by a government seeking a scapegoat for the island’s crime problem.
Astaphan said that even though Regis was given an increase in salary as a result of his new position “in the eyes of every St Lucian . . .it is a demotion”.
Regis has been replaced by his deputy, Vernon François. (CMC)