TRINIDAD-INQUIRY-Chairman was sworn in to lead the probe into the Paria diving tragedy.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad– Queen’s Counsel Jerome Lynch was on Thursday sworn in as co-chairman of the Commission of Enquiry (COE) that will probe the deaths of four divers working on an underwater pipeline in February.

He was named to head the inquiry after the original Chairman renowned Jamaican jurist Justice Cecil Dennis Morrison Q.C., resigned suddenly.

I start my work today. There is much to be done, and I will not hurry. We want this to be a comprehensive analysis.

The COE has been set up to look into the circumstances that led to the deaths of divers Kazim Ali Jr., Yusuf Henry, Rishi Nagar, and Faizal Kurban at the Paria Fuel Trading Company’s offshore facility in Point a Pierre on February 25.

Among its objectives are to:

• Could you identify the precise facts and circumstances that led to the loss of life?
• Could you look over all the decisions and actions after it became clear that the five divers went missing?
• Identify whether Paria and LMCS Ltd., the divers’ employer, used sufficient safeguards and measures to ensure the safety of its contracted employees, property and the prevention of the incident.
• Could you identify whether, by act or omission, any identified or unidentified party directly or indirectly caused loss of life?
• Please look over all other material circumstances that led up to and surrounding the incident that led to the deaths of four LMCS divers, continuing to recover their bodies.

The COE chairman is a Senior Litigator at Trott and Duncan in Bermuda and a Queen’s Counsel at Cloisters Chambers in London. His practice includes defending all serious crimes, including murder and manslaughter, fraud, corruption, Company breaches, insider trading, money laundering, and other white-collar crime.

Lynch, who has a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Lancashire, was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1983 and was appointed as a Queen’s Counsel in 2000. In addition, he has been admitted to practice in Bermuda, Turks & Caicos, the British Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands.