KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, Feb. 21, IWN – Opposition Leader Arnhim Eustace is “unlikely” to ask Senator Vynnette Frederick to give up her senatorial appointment as she battles six charges in the court.
Police on Friday slapped three charges on Frederick, a 36-year-old lawyer.
She was charged with “falsely swearing before Miss Fay James, a person authorised to administer the oath,” police said in a release.
The offenses are alleged to have taken place at Kingstown on Jan. 10, 2011 and May 12, 2012.
These are in addition to three perjury charges brought against her last year.
In 2008, after a female member of Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves’ security detail accused him of sexually assaulting her, Eustace said that the Prime Minister should step down until his name was cleared.
Gonsalves denied the allegations and the Director of Public Prosecutions later threw out the cases for a lack of evidence, a decision upheld at the appeal court.
Asked at a press conference on Wednesday if he would have Frederick removed from the senate until the charges against her are resolved, Eustace said:
“I heard a couple days ago about the additional charges. I have not even seen the charges yet. I don’t think these things are on all fours and I am unlikely to make any such comment. That matter will go before the court. Some other matters didn’t,” he said.
I-Witness News understands that Magistrate Rechanne Browne, sister of Luke Browne, a candidate for the ruling Unity Labour Party in the 2010 general elections, recused herself and transferred the matter to the Mesopotamia court for March 6.
On Sept. 12, 2012, Frederick, who was a candidate for the New Democratic Party in the 2010 general elections, was arrested and charged with three counts of perjury and was granted $10,000 bail.
The charges stemmed from a case she filed against Gonsalves following the 2010 general elections.