Police Dismiss Reports of Mistreatment

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mark Shields is dismissing reports that members of the Pakistan cricket team were mistreated during early investigations into the death of their coach, Bob Woolmer on March 18.
“Nothing could be farther from the truth. I have said throughout that we have nothing but 100 per cent co-operation from the Pakistan team. They were treated with dignity and respect at a time when their coach had died under tragic circumstances and they were very upset,” the Deputy Commissioner said at a press conference at the Jamaica Police Officers Club on Hope Road on April 14.
“Frankly, I am disappointed and a bit surprised about those statements and if they were indeed said, I have not heard it,” he said.
The Deputy Commissioner insisted that the police did their job with as much sensitivity as possible.
“I will give you an example of that. I believe they had a game on Wednesday [March 21] and we decided that we would interview all the players and they all co-operated on Thursday [March 22], so we set time aside and I personally spoke to the players after that,” he pointed out.
“There was no indication at the time from any player or match official that they had been treated any other way than with dignity and respect as we treat everybody,” he stressed.
Mr. Shields also noted that until recently, there were two diplomats from the Pakistani Embassy in Washington D.C., – Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, First Secretary and Shahid Ahmed, Counsellor – in the island and they expressed no complaints from the Pakistani cricket team.
“We received no complaints and nothing but praise from them for the way in which we handled the investigation and we now have two Pakistani Officers here, who are working alongside us and again no complaints,” he said.
Since the death of 58 year-old Coach Woolmer, all Pakistani team members have been questioned and have freely given answers and provided voluntary written statements. They have also been fingerprinted and have provided DNA swabs.
Pakistan was eliminated from the ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007 on March 17 at Sabina Park, beaten by Ireland.