PHILIPSBURG–Minister of Justice Cornelius de Weever has made good on his promise to begin a civil case against former Pointe Blanche prison Chief Operations Officer (COO) Fernando Clark who accused the minister of dismissing him after he refused sexual advances from the minister some eight months ago.
Clark received his summons from the Court of First Instance this week and was ordered in writing to appear at 9:15am November 23. Clark said publicly in October that De Weever had abused his power when he requested that Clark participate in “sexual activities,” which Clark refused to do. Two weeks later the process to prematurely terminate Clark’s three-year labour agreement with government began.
Clark said his reason for coming forward with the information had to do with the statements made by Member of Parliament (MP) Christophe Emmanuel in the PJD2 1300AM newscast in regard to the abuse-of-power charges by former staff member F.T. against Minister of Tourism Stuart Johnson.
In reaction to Clark’s statement, De Weever said during a Government press briefing at the time “Mr. Fernando Clark was summoned to retract his factually incorrect, slanderous and defamatory remarks about, briefly put, sexual harassment allegedly leading to his dismissal. His remarks were clearly geared at the Minister of Justice, which function was held by my person during his dismissal.”
“In reaction to my summons to first and foremost retract his statements and secondly confirm in writing that he would refrain from making further incorrect, slanderous and defamatory statements, Mr. Clark informed my attorney that, as mentioned in his press release of Thursday, October 18, ‘I have no proof, no evidence and no witness(es) to substantiate what I claimed has happened.’
“Clark thereby complied with the second part of my summons, which is to confirm in writing that he would refrain from making further publications or making further remarks in this matter. His reaction, however, does not entail a retraction and I will consequently further pursue this matter in court.”
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/82598-clark-summoned-to-appear-in-court-on-november-23
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