The Opposition United National Congress says it stands fully behind MP David Lee in wake of him being charged with misbehavior in public office.
Lee is accused of purchasing a $2.3 million Mercedes-Benz on behalf of a UNC party financier, in order to access the $1.4 million in tax exemptions afforded to him as a Member for Parliament.
The Point-a-Pierre MP was brought before a Justice of the Peace this afternoon and was released on $1million bail.
In a statement on Friday afternoon, the party dismissed the allegation as “part of the typical PNM playbook with complicit operatives within the police service designed to embarrass and defame.”
“It is a deliberate, calculated and well-timed distraction by agents of the PNM to save the government from unrelenting condemnation by the population. This is the start of a reign of terror that we warned about. It comes when the UNC and other opposition voices are in the ascendancy,” the UNC said.
It added: “We will never be hounded and bullied into silence. We will continue to speak out and attack this corrupt and incompetent PNM government by the hour!”