Mercury Rising: The High Court in Guyana

Jul 29, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I normally submit my column very early in the morning. For this column, it was sent after 15:00 hours because some exigencies got in the way yesterday. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. From early morning until 3 p.m., I got responses on my piece yesterday on the very early hearing on President Jagdeo’s libel suit.
Without exception, all the encounters suggested that there may be a danger signal and my lawyers should be careful. The persons range from a current judge, a retired judge, a former Court of Appeal judge, two past presidents of the Bar Association, seven lawyers, three businessmen, three senior journalists, a former, eminent sportsman, and a foreign Minister of the present government. This list does not include UG people and others plus “nuff” e-mails.
The consensus was that it is highly unlikely that a libel case could come up less than one year after affidavits were lodged. A serving judge said to me that when Justice Ian Chang looked at the list before him, it was only natural that given the recent filing, the Jagdeo libel would have had to wait for at least another two years. This judicial official told me that the High Court’s backlog is extremely worrying therefore he was surprised that the President’s libel matter has reached Justice Reynolds’s chambers so quickly
A former High Court Justice told me that there is something wrong here. Is there? I specifically asked many of those who expressed concern to me what could be done. I was told that nothing legally improper was done by the Acting Chief Justice. A former Court of Appeal judge opined that though one can fault the Chief Justice for overlooking at least one High Court matter, it is up to him to decide the prioritization process.
Asked which document should be in ventilation in the High Court, he mentioned the matter involving the Opposition Leader and the Integrity Commission. He smiled and said, “The Integrity Commission case holds far more importance for this country than a libel matter involving you and the President.”
This former Court of Appeal Justice said that once the Opposition Leader was sentenced to jail in Trinidad (Basdeo Panday) over violation of the Integrity Commission Act, it was natural for that office to assume national importance in Guyana thus the completion of the Opposition Leader’s court matter against the Commission should have seen the light of day since last year.
He reminded me that there are suits against the three Service Commissions (Teaching, Public and Judicial) still on the backlog. He pointed to a number of law matters involving the Guyana Police Force, some of which he said have gone beyond four years.
As it stands at the moment, my article for July 28 entitled, “Khemraj Ramjattan wants President Jagdeo for 5 days” is the commentary I have received most responses for and I have been doing these analyses, assessments and viewpoints since 1988.
Yesterday, person after person just kept asking why is that matter in court so early; look at how many cases are pending. My honest feeling is that the people that have interacted with me believe that it was because President Jagdeo is involved and they want to believe that justice may not be served.
A former High Court judge said to me yesterday afternoon with a huge smile on his face “Freddie, you and Harris have a pen; Glenn Lall has a whole newspaper.” Then descending to a sober level, he remarked; “The press is the only avenue to keep the judiciary in shape, to make it appear independent; you heard what I said, ‘make it appear.’”
I want to state here unambiguously; I know nothing about Justice Reynolds that would cause me to request my lawyers to have him recuse himself. He is the judge assigned by Justice Chang, and I have no reason at this moment to fear. So far, I have not been advised of any wrongdoing by Justice Chang. But I think it is honest for any citizen to say that Justice Chang ought to explain, for the credibility and image of the Judiciary, why this case was so important to have bypassed literally hundreds of others on his desk that are in storage for years.
Important to note that Mr. Jagdeo’s libel suit does not at all involve the state. It means that no function of the entire public realm is on hold because of the case. This is a simple libel trial. It does not involve the government or any arm of the state.

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Mercury Rising: The High Court in Guyana

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