The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Free National Movement senator John Bostwick II’s appeal against his conviction for possession of ammunition will be heard in December.

The 45-year-old lawyer, who was convicted of the criminal charge last December, is seeking to have the Court of Appeal quash the conviction concerning a magazine clip that was found in his luggage during a check by security at the Grand Bahama International Airport in May 2014.

He and his lawyers, Wayne Munroe, QC, and Lisa Bostwick-Dean appeared for a status hearing yesterday before Justices Dame Anita Allen, Jon Isaacs and Roy Jones.

Mr Munroe informed the court that the transcripts from the trial were, based on information he received, two weeks away from being complete after necessary corrections were made and the documents signed.

The appellants and Crown respondents, he said, had agreed to have the substantive hearing of the appeal on December 13.

The appellate court accepted the date and fixed it on the court’s calendar.

Throughout his trial in Magistrate’s Court, Bostwick II maintained his innocence and claimed he was set up in a “vicious and diabolical” plan to tarnish his character and reputation.

He testified that he went through the security checkpoints at the Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau without any incident on the day in question before proceeding to the departure lounge to await the flight. He was en route to Grand Bahama to attend a friend’s wedding.

He said when he arrived at the airport in Grand Bahama, he was approached by individuals and started talking to them.

His bag was periodically between his shoulder and the ground prior to his arrival to the Our Lucaya Resort where he said he left the bag unattended in the room of the groom who was to be married on the resort property. The bag was also left unattended in the rental car when visiting the groom’s new home on the island prior to his departure flight, he said.

Bostwick II said when he got to the airport, he was approached by people who said “they were excited to meet the future prime minister.”

It was when he proceeded through security screening after placing his backpack on the conveyor belt that airport security discovered the magazine clip.

However, Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes rejected his claims that he was framed as “unconvincing and unbelievable” and highlighted inconsistencies between the former senator’s testimony concerning the day in question, surveillance footage and his statement in police custody.

Bostwick II was fined $15,000 for the offence. He is the son of John Henry Bostwick, QC, and former Foreign Affairs Minister and Attorney General Janet Bostwick, the first woman to be elected to the House of Assembly.

Bostwick II was sworn in as a FNM senator in February 2013. He was fired from the post in May 2014, shortly after he was arraigned.

He ran on the FNM’s ticket in 2012 as the standard bearer for Bain and Grants Town, but lost.

He still maintains political aspirations and a successful appeal would make them possible.

Article 48 (1) (f) of the Constitution notes that a person cannot be elected as a member of the House of Assembly who “is under sentence of death imposed on him by a court in the Bahamas, or is serving a sentence of imprisonment (by whatever name called) exceeding 12 months imposed on him by such a court or substituted by competent authority for some other sentence imposed on him by such a court, or is under such a sentence of imprisonment the execution of which has been suspended.”

Under existing law, minor criminal offences remain on a person’s record for seven years from the date of conviction.

Garvin Gaskin, director of public prosecutions, Eucal Bonaby and Cephia Pinder-Moss appears for the Crown in the appeal.