I was grossly misquoted - Magistrate Azeez

I was grossly misquoted – Magistrate Azeez

Sep 01, 2010 News

Road deaths’ prosecutions/ settlements…

City magistrate, Fazil Azeez, says that the continued practice of settling cases of causing death by dangerous driving is stymieing the prosecution’s efforts to advance proceedings because witnesses do not come to court.
The magistrate made the comments yesterday after he pointed out that statements that were attributed to him last week over the settlements were not accurately carried in an article published in the Kaieteur News on August 25.
In the article headlined “Magistrate wants ‘killer’ drivers to be charged with manslaughter”, Azeez reportedly said that “in cases where the parties have settled, it would be futile for a magistrate to attempt to continue the matter, since the parties involved would be uncooperative”.
However, the Learned Magistrate, in pointing out that parts of his statements were incorrectly reported, noted that the word “uncooperative” did not accurately reflect his thoughts, since the fact is that witnesses just simply would not come to court after a settlement is made.
Magistrate Azeez noted: “In cases where there are out of court monetary settlements, prosecution witnesses fail to show up in court to give vital testimony and that stymies the prosecution case.”
In the article also, where the magistrate is quoted as saying that he has had “to destroy police on the stand”, he stressed that this too was “grossly misquoted” in that he uttered no such remarks.
He was adamant that what he did say was “Occasionally, because of the inconsistencies in the testimony of police witnesses, deliberately or otherwise, defence attorneys discredit and destroy such witnesses on the stand. Such attorneys make strong suggestions that the witnesses are there to lie.”
In the article also, the Magistrate is quoted as saying that his “gut feeling is that sixty percent of the policemen who are on the job for three, four years have a minibus on the road.”
However, this too, the Magistrate said, is inaccurately represented in the former story.
“What I did say was that in the absence of statistical verification, my gut feeling is that between 50-60% of traffic police ranks on the road who are on the job for three to four years have minibuses and other vehicles engaged in commercial transportation. Sometimes in the very division in which they are working.”
On the issue of the granting of bail, referred to in the earlier story, the Magistrate stated that where an offence is non-bailable, for example, murder, magistrates, being “Creatures of Statute”, cannot grant bail, but Justices of the High Court can, in special circumstances, as they enjoy a wider discretion.
Recently, the practice of relatives and families taking monies from accused persons to settle cases involving road deaths has come under the microscope with many notable cases disappearing off the radar. There have been heavy criticisms with many feeling justice has been denied and that the state, even following a settlement, still has the duty to ensure that there is prosecution.
Kaieteur News apologizes to the Magistrate for any embarrassment, ridicule or discomfort which the previous story may have caused him.