The Court of Appeal will rule next week on whether the Chief Justice was right not to stop the media reporting further revelations from a leaked Police dossier on the Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC) scandal.

Mr. Justice Richard Ground ruled on Monday that the right of the public to know about the probe into serious allegations about public figures including Premier Ewart Brown outweighed concern that the file was a confidential Police document.

Police Commissioner George Jackson and Attorney General Philip Perinchief launched the action against the Island's media outlets after ZBM and the Mid-Ocean News published extracts from the documents on May 23 and June 1 respectively.

The leaked dossier — said to run to thousands of pages— reportedly revealed that Dr. Brown, former Premier Jennifer Smith, former Ministers Renée Webb and Arthur Hodgson and construction boss Zane DeSilva were investigated by Police looking into allegations of corruption at the BHC.

The Commissioner and Attorney General asked for a ban on the so-far unpublished sections being reported, although the contents of these were not outlined during the hearing.

Less than 24 hours after Mr. Justice Ground ruled against this, the pair took their fight to the Court of Appeal. The panel of three judges – President Justice Edward Zacca, Sir Austin Ward and Gerald Nazareth – heard legal arguments yesterday and this morning.

During submissions, there was a strongly-worded exchange between Saul Froomkin QC, for this newspaper and sister the Mid-Ocean News and Delroy Duncan for the appellants about the latest developments in the Police hunt for the source of the leak.

This saw two men arrested and released last week, and Auditor General Larry Dennis arrested and released after 24 hours in custody in a move criticised by Mr. Froomkin.

The appeals justices announced at the end of proceedings that they will rule at 10 a.m on Monday.

In the interim period, they have ordered that Bermuda's broadcasting organisations and the Bermuda Sun should not report further material from the dossier until the appeal concludes. The Mid-Ocean News and The Royal Gazette have agreed to extend a previous undertaking made not to do.

* Read the full story on the appeal in tomorrow's edition of The Royal Gazette.