A Human Rights Board of Inquiry will decide in September whether the Bank of Bermuda discriminated against Harold Darrell because of his race.

Cherie Blair QC, wife of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, represented Mr. Darrell in the Court of Appeal on June 28, when it quashed the Bank's appeal not to hold the Inquiry into the discrimination allegations.

If her schedule permits, Mrs. Blair will reappear along with lawyers Julian Hall and Delroy Duncan to represent Darrell in the Human Rights Board of Inquiry from Wednesday, September 21 to Friday, September 30.

Mr. Hall does not have a practising certificate to practice law in Bermuda, however, section 15.5 B of The Human Rights Act 1981 states that "some other person of his choice" may represent Mr. Darrell at the Board of Inquiry and not necessarily a barrister or attorney.

At the Inquiry yesterday, Board Chairman Paul King and panellists Vonda Burgess and Ronald Baptiste decided to go ahead with the Inquiry, despite Bank of Bermuda lawyer Jeffrey Elkinson arguing it should not due to "practicality".

He said the complaint of racial discrimination and the Bank's alleged leaking of confidential information were intertwined and would be dealt with in a civil matter in the Supreme Court in November.

"There is a plan to embark on other proceedings. The Board may make a ruling, then the Chief Justice could say he does not agree." Mr. Elkinson said yesterday. "It may be odd to have findings that may conflict with what a Court of Record decides."

However, Delroy Duncan was adamant that the Inquiry was not about the alleged leaking of confidential information about his client's personal account that allegedly turned a business deal sour in 1996.

"The refusal by the Bank to enforce one of its own policies because of race is what we are here for today," Mr. Duncan said. "It is completely different."

The centre of Mr. Darrell's Human Rights complaint was that an internal inquiry in 1999/2000 by former executive vice-president Allan Richardson allegedly found in Mr. Darrell's favour and was never allegedly never acted upon because of his race. Twenty-one witnesses are expected to give evidence in written statements.

Mr. Duncan said he was expecting to call seven witnesses and Mr. Elkinson said he had 14 witnesses including the Bank's board of directors at the time including, Henry Smith, Dr. Clarence James, Ann Cartwright Decouto JP, Rt. Wor. William Frith, Eldon Trimingham, Geoffrey Elliott, David Hamshere JP, G. Ward Young, Paul Lesseur, Henry Smith, John Campbell JP, Richard Pearman, Dennis Tucker, Eugene Bean, Joseph Johnson, Louise Jackson MP, Peter Cooper and David Gutteridge.

Mr. Duncan said, "Should the issue arise whether or not they will be able to come, we may have to ask for subpoenas."

General Manager of the Hardell Group and Mr. Darrell's personal assistant Corey Butterfield told The Royal Gazette yesterday, "When the decision came from the Court of Appeal the bank stated that they looked forward to establishing that Mr. Darrell's allegations are totally without merit before a Board of Inquiry. Yet today they spent a good half an hour trying to say why the Board of Inquiry shouldn't be held," he said. "So it does not appear they are as confident of the outcome of the Board of Inquiry.

"It has been some five years and what the public might not know, is that Mr. Darrell wrote to the Board on four occasions prior to even bringing this complaint in 2000 so this all could have been resolved without coming this far. Fortunately we are here now at the start, unfortunately its taken five years."