Former Deputy PM Believes He Is Next In Line To Lose His Diplomatic Passport Published on Tuesday, 03 December 2013 10:09 Written by Ken Richards Hits: 827 St Kitts and Nevis (WINN) Former deputy prime minister Sam Condor is expecting the same kind of treatment from the government given to former senior government minister Dr Timothy Harris. Dr Harris was stripped of his diplomatic status on Monday, after being informed while on his way out of the country, that his diplomatic passport had been deactivated. Both Harris and Condor have defected from the governing Labour Party of Prime Minister Denzil Douglas, over policy differences with Dr Douglas, and have emerged as two of the prime minister’s fiercest critics. “I don’t think I will be able to hold on to it for a while, I think the same fate that Dr Harris met will be met by me,” Condor told WINN FM Monday while confirming that he still has his diplomatic passport. The Team Unity parliamentarian says to date he has not been informed that his diplomatic status has been revoked. “No the government is not that courteous you know, the government does things to embarrass people,” Condor said. He described Dr Harris’s not being informed formally ahead of his planned trip that his diplomatic passport had been revoked as “really unfortunate” that an MP who had served in the Douglas Cabinet for 18 years should be treated that way. Meanwhile another former government minister, Dwyer Astaphan was asked whether he was surprised that Dr Harris has lost his diplomatic status because he is now seen as an opponent of the government. “Well if that is the yardstick by which diplomatic passports are issued, or not issued or revoked, then certainly the situation is uglier than many thought,” Astaphan told WINN FM. Timothy Harris has been very vocal about an alleged passport scandal in which Iranian Alizeera Moghadam is reported to have told Canadian authorities that he paid US$1million for a St Kitts and Nevis diplomatic passport. Both Harris and Opposition Leader Mark Brantley have called on the Douglas administration to clear the air on that matter. They contend that the prime minister announced in July that Iranians and Afghans would be excluded from Basseterre’s citizenship by investment programme without informing the nation that the move had been prompted by security concerns expressed by Canada over the Moghadam passport matter.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 11:57:03 +0000