‘They tried to blackmail me’

Wednesday 11th April 2007, 12:00AM BST.

HEALTH Minister Stuart Syvret has complained to police that two critics of Jersey’s finance industry tried to blackmail him into giving their organisations his public support.

The Senator made the complaint against John Christensen, director of the international secretariat of Tax Justice Network (TJN), and Richard Murphy, a director of Tax Research, who both deny attempting to blackmail the Senator. Detective Chief Inspector André Bonjour said: ‘We can confirm Senator Syvret has made allegations to us in relation to offences under Article 47 of the States of Jersey Law 2005 which concern blackmail, menaces or compulsion. ‘We are making inquiries at this stage and have spoken to Senator Syvret in relation to these allegations. We are also considering data protection matters.’

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