Inside the States

Last week Deputy Geoff Southern tried, without success, to have a special States sitting to discuss this.

It was the last thing on the order paper, but it did take a significant amount of time to discuss. Deputy Geoff Southern, who brought the proposition, said that the arrest and detention of Senator Syvret and the search of his home brought up serious concerns about the safety of the confidentiality between a politician and his constituent.

Geoff Southern

Deputy Southern said it could affect whether people feel comfortable giving sensitive information to their representatives in the future. He questioned the use of the law that allowed the police to search the house without a warrant, and suggested that the police ignored the rules to do it.

Lawful

Senator Ian Le Marquand said instead it was an attempt to interfere in the operations of the police. He said everything they had done had been lawful. He said contrary to what was reported, eight police did not come to arrest the Senator.

He said ten were there but only two were arresting officers. And four were there for the search after the arrest. He said the police deny the Senator's claims that they deleted numbers from his phone and hacked into his blog.

And he said they had an independent lawyer there who was versed in questions of parliamentary privilege to go through the material and remove anything that might be secret information from a constituent.

Deputy Southern said it wasn't about Senator Syvret, or how people feel about him personally, but much of the debate was focussed on him.

Senator Ian Le Marquand

'Biased'

Senator Syvret spoke as well, outlining his complaints against the police and the Attorney General, and saying why he felt there had been a biased and inconsistent application of the law. He compared himself to the Conservative UK politician Damian Green, being arrested merely for doing his political job.

Some members questioned whether Senator Syvret should be speaking in the debate - given that there was an investigation ongoing about his case, but while he declared an interest he did pursue his right to speak.

It was quite an intense debate. In the end the proposition was lost, with a vote of 15 in favour, 29 against, and Constable Mezbourian abstaining.

Members will be back next Saturday morning at 10:30 for Liberation Day ceremonies, and you can hear that as part of BBC Radio Jersey's coverage of the day.