Under cross examination by an opposition lawyer, Justice Minister and Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne said she had no idea that the alleged crime boss of the notorious Tivoli Gardens slum had any links to the political party she has belonged to since 1976.
"Throughout the ages, into the 90's, you never knew that he was a strongman for the Jamaica Labor Party?" asked K.D. Knight, a lawyer for the opposition People's National Party.
"No," Lightbourne told a three-member commission of inquiry in Kingston. "I've never seen him at a meeting. I've never seen him anywhere."
It's an open secret that Jamaican politicians and community "dons" who control populous slums known as "garrisons" have had alliances for decades. A U.S. diplomatic cable leaked in December indicates that Coke even engaged in crime-fighting initiatives with Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie, an influential figure in the ruling party.
A former prime minister from the same party, Edward Seaga, marched at the funeral of Coke's father, the famed gang leader known as Jim Brown, who died in a prison fire in 1992 while awaiting extradition to the U.S. on drug charges.
Political parties created Jamaica's street gangs in the 1970s to rustle up votes. Since then, the gangs have turned to drug trafficking and extortion.
The slum once presided over by Coke, the alleged leader of the "Shower Posse" gang, has long been a bastion of Labor support. It is part of the district represented in parliament by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who stonewalled a U.S. extradition request for Coke for months before reversing himself under pressure from Washington and Jamaica's civil society.
During her days of testimony before the fact-finding panel, Lightbourne answered "I don't know" dozens of times while being questioned by Knight, who was combative and sometimes belligerent. He accused Lightbourne of being evasive and dishonest.
"You have been untruthful to the country, the Senate, this inquiry," Knight asserted at the close of Monday's testimony.
"I refute that most strongly and most definitely," Lightbourne replied hotly.
Earlier, she testified that she did not approve Coke's extradition for months due to what she believed was flawed evidence submitted by the U.S., including wiretapped communications. She said Coke's reputation as the Tivoli strongman had nothing to do with her opposition.
"My regard was for the citizens of Jamaica. This would create a precedent for further extradition requests and it was important that I stand my ground," she said.
Earlier, Lightbourne said her growing concern over a breakdown in public order prompted her to finally sign the U.S. extradition request for Coke on drug- and gun-running charges.
Shortly after she eventually signed the order, Golding made a televised announcement that he would approve Coke's extradition after fighting the U.S. request for nine months — even to the point of hiring a U.S. lobbyist to oppose it.
Days later, at least 76 people died in street battles in a patchwork of West Kingston slums as security forces sought Coke, who solidified his authority by providing handouts, jobs and protection in a poor downtown area where the government and police typically had little presence.
Coke was captured June 22 and quickly sent to New York, where he has pleaded not guilty to charges that he trafficked drugs to the U.S. and funneled profits and guns back to Jamaica.
