The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Minister of Foreign Affairs has dismissed Fred Smith’s fears that the Immigration Department’s actions will spark a second homeowner “exodus” in Freeport.

Fred Mitchell described the Callenders & Co QC as “a stranger to the truth”, again giving his full backing to the Department’s handing of the case involving Coral Beach Homeowners Association president, Bruno Rufa.

Mr Smith, who is Mr Rufa’s attorney, said foreign second homeowners at Coral Beach had been further “incensed and terrified” by comments by Mr Mitchell, which implied that their support for his client at a Supreme Court hearing was tantamount to “an illegal gathering”, and represented interference in the Bahamas’ internal and judicial affairs.

Mr Smith said the growing unease among many of Coral Beach’s foreign condo owners might drive some to leave Freeport and never come back.

Mr Mitchell, in an e-mailed response to Tribune Business on Mr Smith’s comments, said: “Mr Smith is well known for hyperbole and gross defamatory statements. I’m not sure if he knows the truth if it stares him in the face.

“The Department has repeatedly stated its position on these matters. I support the Department. When Mr Smith is moved to apologise to this country for his defamatory statements about the Department, perhaps the country might take him seriously. This is a fellow who urged migrants to sue the Government, overwhelm the courts and thereby bankrupt the country, and then expects to be taken seriously.”

Mr Smith recently spoke out after one of Mr Rufa’s fellow directors on the Coral Beach Board, Nanci Salvisburg, saw her application for a homeowner’s card declined by Immigration.

Mr Smith said the refusal came two days before the Immigration Department sent a letter to the Coral Beach Association, seeking to reassure all homeowners that they would not be victimised as a result of its ongoing court battle with Mr Rufa.

Mr Smith, though, told Tribune Business that many of Coral Beach’s 230 foreign owners were “anxious” over both the Rufa court case and Immigration’s rejection of the home owner’s card applications by himself and his partner, Sandra Georgiou.