A senior British lawyer with strong Caribbean roots has been assigned as the judge for a pending criminal case in Bermuda against former Progressive Labour Party (PLP) premier Dr. Ewart Brown.
Puisne Judge, Justice Shade Subair-Williams told the Supreme Court that Martin Forde QC had been appointed to hear the case.
Forde, son of a Barbadian father and St. Lucian mother who grew up in the UK, was previously appointed by the national executive committee of the Britain’s Party to undertake an independent investigation into the circumstances and contents of a leaked report into antisemitism within the party.
He also served as an independent adviser to the Windrush compensation scheme between 2018 and 2021, intended to benefit those who emigrated to Britain from Commonwealth Caribbean islands, only for many to be illegally detained, deported and denied legal rights by measures intended to crack down on illegal immigration.
Forde has been a Recorder of the Crown Court in the UK since 2009, meaning he has presided over the equivalent of Bermuda Supreme Court trials as a judge, legal sources said.
Brown, 75, a physician who was premier between 2006 and 2010, faces 13 charges, including five related to agreements with America’s Lahey Clinic, through which he allegedly received US$4.01 million in monthly payments between 2001 and 2010.
The remaining eight charges relate to allegations of corruptly obtaining $350,500 in donations to benefit the PLP and the Bermuda Health Foundation between 2007 and 2010.
Meanwhile, Brown, who has not yet been required to enter a plea, has launched a civil court matter against the director of public prosecutions, the attorney-general and the deputy governor.
Mrs. Justice Subair-Williams had been set to hear both matters but announced in March that she would step away from the cases.
Bermuda-born Brown was forced to give up his US citizenship when he won a seat in the House of Assembly in 1993 after he returned to the island. He retired from politics after stepping down as premier.
CMC/
