Minister of Legal Affairs, Elvin Nimrod says he is not surprised with the ruling delivered last week by high court judge, Justice Kenneth Benjamin on the Peter David dual citizenship case.

The judge dismissed the case following arguments by the defense on the procedure used by government¹s lead lawyer in the case, Hugh Wildman of Jamaica.

Speaking to reporters in St. George¹s, Minister Nimrod said
the ruling was in keeping with "recent trends" involving high court action involving the Keith Mitchell-led New National Party (NNP) government. "...I wasn¹t surprised that judgement came in the way it did", he added.

Nimrod mentioned a number of high court judgements handed down in recent times against government, such as the Salisbury Merchant case, Green Bridge involving owner of Spice Isle Retreaders Ltd, Azam Rahaman, Dipcon, and three of the seventeen army officers of the 1979-83 Grenada Revolution who are incarcerated at Richmond Hill Prison.

He said that all these cases were reversed in Government¹s favour by the Court of Appeal. "We had our reason to believe that this (Peter David) case would have been no different", he added.

Asked whether the judicial system was acting unfair to government, Nimrod said it might just be going through a bad and rough patch., adding that he would never attack the judiciary since government believes in the independence of the judiciary, an institution that must remain separate and apart as provided for in the constitution.

Minister Nimrod formally announced that the ruling in the Peter David case would be appealed by the State. The senior government minister also used the occasion to refute claims in some quarters in the country that the Mitchell administration was trying to interference with the judiciary.

There have been reports that the regime had made moves to the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLCS) to have high court judge, Justice Davidson Baptiste removed from the jurisdiction.

Government¹s legal advisor, Hugh Wildman of Jamaica has publicly accused the judge of being bias against him. Nimrod rejected claims made by Deputy Political Leader of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Senator George Prime that government was involved in the move against Justice Baptiste.

"To imply that government is trying to have Justice Baptiste removed is far from the truth. I don¹t know how a single government in the OECS grouping can remove or appoint a judge or a justice, he said. Nimrod chided Prime for trying to make such statements in light of his involvement with the ill-fated 1979-83 People¹s Revolutionary Government (PRG) which suspended the Grenada Constitution and jailed political opponents without trial.

"...Look who¹s talking, look who¹s talking - someone who¹s been involved in a government that had suspended the constitution of Grenada and had denied hundreds of Grenadians of their constitutional and other legal rights", he said.

Nimrod slammed the PRG for jailing over 3000 persons without a hearing in its time in office, adding that Prime was engaging in "total hypocrisy" by saying that "we are interfering in the judiciary".