Police Detective Inspector Earl Dubar has been mandated by Commissioner of Police, Winston James to pursue criminal libel investigations against an executive member of the ruling New National Party (NNP) government.

The moves comes against the backdrop of a complaint made to Commissioner James on Monday by Editor of the GRENADA TODAY newspaper, George Worme about an article written about him by NNP's executive member, Michael Regis in another local newspaper.

Worme made the move less than a week after the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) on the urging of a certain lawyer picked him up for questioning on criminal libel in connection with a complaint made against a letter in the GRENADA TODAY newspaper by a female activist of the ruling party.

The editor and two attorneys - Lloyd Noel and Anslem Clouden - met with Commissioner James on Monday at his office on Fort George (Rupert) to hand deliver a letter to him along with the offending newspaper article written by Regis.

The Regis article sought to link the editor with some "concocted plot" relating to allegations that the current government was planning to assassinate its former Foreign Minister, Dr. Raphael Fletcher. British-trained journalist Stanley Charles was charged by the police for sedition in connection with the Dr. Fletcher matter.

The meeting between the newspaper editor and his party and Commissioner James lasted for around 15 minutes. Also in attendance was Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police, Raymond Charles, the former head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

After reading the letter, Commissioner James assured Worme and the lawyers that he would cause an investigation to be made into the complaint and get back in touch with him. In commenting on the meeting, Worme said that he would like the police to deal with the matter as expeditiously as possible.

"I hope that Inspector Dunbar does not treat the matter as he appears to be doing with another complaint of criminal libel made by former Opposition Leader Michael Baptiste against the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elvin Nimrod. I take careful note of the meeting that Mr. Baptiste had last week with Commissioner James on the fact that two years after he made the complaint against the minister that Inspector Dunbar is still to contact him and give him a progress report on the investigation".

"I would hate to believe that this detective is not doing his work or afraid to investigate the matter because it involves a minister of government. Mr. Baptiste is still waiting after two years on the police for some action on his complain but the same police within a matter of days picked me up for questioning after a known activist of the NNP made a complain to them".

The newspaper editor also commented on a statement made by the Keith Mitchell-led government that there the police force acted against the newspaper editor independently of any political interference in the matter. He said: How ironic that the NNP will make such a statement about the police at this point in time. It was the same NNP that blamed the police for their party¹s dismal showing in the 2003 general elections and accused a number of senior police officers of supporting the National Democratic Congress.

"The same Mitchell government retaliated by transferring a number of police officers from their positions on the grounds that they cannot trust them", he added.