Ibori to spend first Xmas in 4yrs outside prison

Jailed former governor of Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori, is to regain his freedom in December 2016 from British prisons.

Ibori’s release is coming after serving half of his jail term according to British laws. He was jailed in 2012 for money laundering by the Southwark Crown Court.

Reports from London however indicate that the former Delta State governor may likely stay back in United Kingdom to appeal his conviction, after new evidence showed that the process leading to his conviction was tainted with police corruption and cover up by the prosecution.

Also, the legal process for the confiscation of his assets running into millions of dollars have remained unresolved due to new revelations concerning allegations of corruption in his prosecution.

His lawyer, Ivan Krolick, had told the Southwark Crown Court on Friday that he was 95 percent certian the former governor   would appeal against his conviction on the grounds that British police and lawyers involved in his case were themselves corrupt.

According to new revelations, a police officer involved in the Ibori probe took payments for information in 2007 from a firm of private detectives working on Ibori’s behalf.

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Stephen Kamlish, lawyer to a former British lawyer and Ibori associate who helped him launder money, Bhadresh Gohil, told the court that prosecution lawyers had known there was evidence of police corruption but had failed to disclose it to defence lawyers.

Krolick also disclosed, while speaking with Reuters on Friday, that Ibori did not know about the payments at the time.

Though the British police had initially said that the allegation was thoroughly investigated and that no one was arrested or charged, and no misconduct identified, the Crown Prosecution Service, CPS, has said it found “material to support the assertion that a police officer received payment in return for information.”

The CPS also conceded in September that the material should have been disclosed to the defence, and handed over thousands of documents to defence lawyers.

Ibori’s associate, Gohil has already filed an appeal against his conviction, with Krolick saying Ibori was likely to do so once his legal team had finished going through all the newly disclosed documents.

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