Newly Appointed Police Minister Opts to Stay Out of Budna Case

The newly appointed Minister of Home Affairs, Oscar Mira, says he will keep his hands off the Joseph Budna investigation and leave all decisions to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

“I will not go there and put my 5 cents or 2 cents or 1 cent in what has happened. As a minister of police, I respect that it is at the DPP’s office, and I will leave it there for her guidance,” Mira told Plus TV.

Mira, the former National Defence Minister, stepped into the role of Police Minister after Minister Henry Charles Usher refused to take up the Home Affairs portfolio.

The Budna investigation is one of the first major issues on Mira’s desk. The case has dragged on for months with strong public pressure for an independent investigation after video footage placed the police department under scrutiny for alleged involvement in Budna’s kidnapping.

Yet Mira says he has not reviewed any of the material.

“I have not seen any footage. I have not seen any file. As I said, I won’t interfere with the investigation that has happened or is happening. I will not interfere with what the DPP’s direction is going to be,” he said.

On Tuesday, November 12, the DPP, Cheryl-Lynn Vidal, described the police’s investigation file forwarded to her as containing “less than nothing.” She told reporters, “I apologize as director for saying this but I was also expecting that there would have been nothing in the file. What I was not expecting was that there would be less than nothing in the file which is really my characterization of what has been put before me.” 

Vidal added that based on the file she received, no arrests can be made at this time because the witness accounts in the file are limited and too uncertain to support charges.