By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
THE Shane Gibson bribery trial is expected to resume today after a couple of days of legal submissions in the absence of a jury.
The prosecution closed its case against Gibson on Tuesday.
The former labour minister is charged with 15 counts of bribery. It is alleged that between January 16 and 19, 2017 he and Deborah Bastian solicited over $200,000 from contractor Jonathan Ash as an inducement to or a reward for the politician giving assistance or using his influence to approve outstanding payments the government owed Mr Ash.
The Crown also alleges that on various dates between January 19-31, 2017, Gibson, still concerned with Ms Bastian, accepted $100,000 of payments from Mr Ash; then, between January 30 and February 28 of 2017, Gibson allegedly accepted several cash payments from Mr Ash totaling some $100,000.
Between February 10 and March 27, 2017, Gibson solicited and accepted a total of $80,000 from Mr Ash, but this time he was not concerned with Ms Bastian, the Crown maintains. The Crown claims Mr Ash initially made the payments to Gibson through the middlewoman for the first set of payments totaling $200,000, but made them directly to Gibson for the remaining $80,000.
Gibson has denied the allegations.
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