Former government minister Dean Jonas was slapped with an additional charge when he appeared before the court this morning.

Jonas was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, threatening language, resisting arrest, and battery of a police officer, stemming from a physical brawl with police at his Scotts Hill residence.

He now has assault added to his charge sheet while the charge of threatening language has been reworded to “threatening language tending to a breach of the peace”

When the matter came up in court, his Attorney Wendel Robinson filed a submission that police do not have jurisdictions to prosecute anymore, since the Criminal Prosecutions Service Act abolished the police’s right to prosecute in 2017.

“The police are given the right to prosecute under section 31 of the Police Act and that is the powers that the Police Prosecutions Unit was using to prosecute but the Act has now been abolished so the police have no right to prosecute any criminal case anymore,” Robinson said

The magistrate adjourned the matter until Monday, to decide on that submission.

In the video shared by thousands of people, Jonas is seen walking toward a police car as it pulls into his driveway.

Jonas greeted the officer who then explained why he was at Jonas’s home. It had to do with a legal matter concerning the custody of Jonas’s son, with another woman other than his wife.

Jonas then asked the officer to leave repeatedly.

After a verbal argument that lasted over one minute, a physical tussle ensued between Jonas and the officer who identified himself as Corporal Jason Joseph. Jonas was later arrested and charged.

Jonas has said that during the encounter, Corporal Joseph, demanded that he release his child to him, without any prior notice or an order from the court.

Jonas said when questioned about the legal authority under which he should comply with the officer’s demands, he was not presented with any such document.

According to Jonas, he considered the officer’s demand to be an attack on his family and refused to comply with the instructions given, which he deemed unlawful.

He said despite repeatedly and loudly instructing the officers to leave his private premises, he was forcibly arrested for protecting the welfare of his family.

Jonas is suing the officer in question, along with others.