Hewitt: A friend in need

Despite his disappointment with today’s sentencing of former Government Minister Donville Inniss, the Reverend Guy Hewitt told Barbados TODAY that he was “glad” to have been able to travel to Brooklyn to support him at his sentencing at the Federal Court for the Eastern District of Brooklyn, New York.

Inniss was sentenced to two years in prison for a money laundering conviction in January 2020, relating to bribery payments received from the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL).

“I consider my greatest wealth those special relationships that I have acquired over a lifetime,” the former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom told Barbados TODAY. “There is little that I wouldn’t do for the people I care about,” the Florida-based cleric said in an interview following today’s sentencing. “When Donville asked I unhesitatingly said yes…I am not a fair-weather friend.”

Hewitt explained that in his appearance and statement, he did not seek to address the stipulated wrongdoings but rather to provide a character reference for Inniss in his capacity as a friend for over 40 years, a former colleague and as a priest.

Hewitt told the court presided over by US District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto that he knew Inniss from secondary school, university and working together professionally. He said that they collaborated in his prior roles of chairman of the board of management of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital when Inniss was Minister of Health, and as an ambassador for Barbados when he was Minister of International Business.

Hewitt explained that he never had cause to suspect that Inniss “suffered from the cancer of political corruption that destroys developing countries and eats away at citizen’s faith in democracy”.  He concluded to the judge that he was aware that Inniss “has maintained his innocence throughout this matter and is planning to appeal his conviction towards exonerating himself and his reputation,” and that he “stands by him”. (wadegibbons@barbadostoday.b b)