By Kyle Walkine

Attorney Fred Smith said he is not really apologizing to the attorney general for comments he made last week, but if she took his statement as a personal attack, then he is sorry for that.

Last Thursday, the Queen’s Counsel told reporters outside a Nassau Street courtroom that he was being victimized under the watch of Attorney General (AG) Allyson Maynard-Gibson.

On Monday, the AG fired back, demanding an apology from Mr. Smith as he was defaming her name. If not, she threatened to seek legal action.

However, Mr. Smith said his intention was not to personally attack the attorney general but to point out that what was happening to him was being done under the approval of her office.

“I maintain all my comments with regard to her office as attorney general,” he said.

“As attorney general, she remains constitutionally responsible for the embarrassment of parading me before the courts. In addition, by constitutional convention and custom, she has ministerial responsibility for the acts and omissions of her agents, such as the commissioner of police, who is laying charges against me.”

The Grand Bahama attorney said he accepts if the AG says the case was not brought before her, but added that it only makes matters worse.

“Because of the high-profiled nature of the case, it is an unacceptable application of responsibility on her part to excuse my arrest, my charge and my prosecution as a common criminal by not stated ignorance,” he said.

Mr. Smith was last week charged with causing unlawful harm.

He said he wonders how he could be arraigned on such a charge when he was in fact the victim of a ‘near death experience’, some of which was caught on camera.

According to the attorney, there are far more important issues in the country for the government to deal with than what is going on between himself and former MP, Keod Smith.
“Rather than focuse on me, what does the government have to hide with respect to the arrangements with Mr. Peter Nygard?” he said.

“Why is the government not defending the Crown land case started by Mr. Nygard against the government? Why has the government not dispose of all communications between Nygard and the government? What is there to hide? What deal has been struck between Mr. Nygard and the government? Why is the government doing nothing to get back the $20 million worth of Crown land that Mr. Nygard has seized?”

Mr. Smith said the attorney general should do her job and investigate the matter, as she is not only an advisor for the government, but the queen.