A lack of incriminating evidence against Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell has led to the speedy and unexpected conclusion Tuesday of the infamous Briefcase inquiry.

It came to an end at the Grenada Trade Centre. nearly three years after it first started on an act passed by Governor-General, Sir Daniel Williams.

The final two witnesses to appear before lone commissioner, Dr. Richard Cheltenham of Barbados was Charge'd Affairs to Grenada Mission in Brussels, Joan-Marie Coutain and Superintendent Michael Francois of the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF).

According to Commissioner Cheltenham, the former government minister, serious and gravely damaging statements were made against Prime Minister Mitchell and none of them could be substantiated during the hearing.

He said the commission concluded that there was no basis to issue a summons for Dr. Mitchell to come forward and defend himself.

Cheltenham admitted that he received a statement from David Merchant, publisher of Offshore Alert which first published the allegations that Dr. Mitchell received some US$500,000.00 in a Louis Vuitton briefcase from international fraudster Eric Resteiner while on a promotional trip to several European countries and Kuwait in 2000.

However, he said that Merchant could not provide evidence to back up his claims therefore his testimony whether in Grenada or outside of the country are found to be without basis.

In giving oral evidence, Coutain testified that at no time during the promotional trip undertaken by the Prime Minister to Europe in June 2000 did she see any monies given to Dr. Mitchell.

She said that at all time she was in the company of the Grenadian leader except when the party was being driven in two separate vehicles from the hotel in Zurich, Switzerland to Resteiner's villa at St. Moritz.

According to Coutain, the delegation met with a group of potential investors at the home of Ambassador Resteiner and then went back to the hotel.

She said that at no point she saw the Prime Minister or any of his security officers with any briefcase other than his own.

Supt. Francois who was charged with the task of getting statements from a list of potential witnesses supplied by the Opposition Leader testified that he was unsuccessful in the assigned task.

He told the Commissioner that the six persons contacted - Former Foreign Affairs Ministers, Dr. Raphael Fletcher and Mark Isaac, as well as travel agent Siddiqui Sylvester, former Opposition Leader, Michael Baptiste, and Marlon Joseph and Barbara Charles - were unwilling to come forward to give evidence.

The senior police officer said that when he spoke to Dr. Fletcher at his home, the ex-government minister told by him that he was not prepared to give a statement since he was not satisfied with the genuineness of the Inquiry.

In the case of Baptiste, a former Agriculture Minister under the ruling New National Party (NNP) administration, he was willing to give a statement but only under certain conditions.

In summing up, Dr. Cheltenham said that efforts were made to get both Resteiner and his former employees, Timothy Bass to come forward but neither men complied.

In addition, efforts to secure the alleged video tape incriminating the Prime Minister proved futile.

The existing Mutual Assistance Treaty between Grenada and the United States provides for Attorney-General, Elvin Nimrod to make an official request to Washington for assistance.

Nimrod is said to have refused to make the request.