§ Mr. CorbynTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when he expects to make a decision as to whether he will exercise his power under section 17 of the Criminal Appeals Act 1968 to refer to the Court of Appeal the case of Samuel Kulasingham and Prem Sivalingham;
(2) when he received an interim or final report from the Essex police inquiry team, established in April 1992 to investigate the circumstances surrounding the convictions of Samuel Kulasingham and Prem Sivalingham;
(3) whether the Essex police inquiry team, established in April 1992 to investigate the circumstances surrounding the convictions of Samuel Kulasingham and Prem Sivalingham, have obtained transcripts of any Metropolitan police interviews with the two chief prosecution witnesses at the 1988 trial, Indrakumar Thiyegaral and Muralee Tharan Arulkodnenthan, which took place prior to their statements as witnesses.
§ Mr. JackThe Essex police are continuing their inquiries into this case and I expect to receive their report shortly. I shall then be in a position to decide, after proper consideration of all the relevant information, whether there are grounds for referring either conviction to the Court of Appeal.
I understand that the inquiry team has established that both the two chief prosecution witnesses were interviewed by officers of the Metropolitan police before statements were taken from them as witnesses, but that no record was made of either of these interviews.