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CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Jun 20 2016 – Prime Minister Allen Chastanet says his new administration is reviewing the controversial appointment of a Saudi Arabian billionaire, Dr. Walid Juffali, as the island’s Permanent Representative to the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Chastanet, who led his United Workers Party (UWP) to victory in the June 6, general election, had been very critical of the appointment of the diplomat and had vowed to review the position if the party won the general election.
“We just swore the cabinet in, so we will be looking into exactly what the conditions are with respect to his ambassadorship,” Chastanet told the Times newspaper here.
Earlier this year, the British government took the unusual step of criticising a sitting judge on his decision to reject a claim of diplomatic immunity from Juffali while giving his former wife the right to sue him there for support.
“I am satisfied that what has transpired here is that (Dr Juffali) has sought and obtained a diplomatic appointment with the sole intention of defeating (Ms Estrada’s) claims consequent on the breakdown of their marriage,” said Justice Hayden.
DDr Juffali has not, in any real sense, taken up his appointment, nor has he discharged any responsibilities in connection with it. It is an entirely artificial construct,” he added.
Christina Estrada, the ex-wife of the Saudi billionaire is seeking a slice of the four billion pound fortune after the end of their 13-year marriage.
But Juffali has filed an appeal against the ruling and Britain’s Foreign Office said that if the decision stood, British diplomats could be hauled before the courts of any country in which they are serving and their position “scrutinised, and their status unjustifiably curtailed”.
Foreign Minister Phillip Hammond said the high court’s ruling “should not be upheld or endorsed”.
The then Kenny Anthony government said it had informed the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) that it intended to uphold the principle of diplomatic immunity by allowing Juffali to invoke his diplomatic immunity in the civil case brought by his ex-wife.
Since then, Anthony confirmed the supermodel ex-wife of the Saudi billionaire, had named him and the Attorney General in a civil lawsuit as she seeks to challenge the decision of the St. Lucia government to appoint Juffali as a diplomat.
