Nandlall denies any relationship with jury foreman

Mar 19, 2014 Letters

Dear Mr. Editor,
I wish to refer to a letter of some length published on the 17th March of the Kaieteur News “Was the P.P.P playing political games with the Lusignan Massacre trial?” purportedly written by M. Maxwell.
From the outset, I believe that M. Maxwell is a pen name. I have my suspicions of who is the real author. The letter makes a number of hysterical and unbridled allegations. Some are simply unworthy of a response.
Some attempt to ensnare me in the conundrum in which Mr. Nigel Hughes found himself, in relation to the foreman of the jury in the Lusignan massacre murder trial. And yet, some attempt to convert the P.P.P into the prosecutorial realm of criminal proceedings in our legal system.
A wise man once told me that even the most bizarre allegations, if not challenged, can become the truth in the deductive process of certain minds. I wish to avoid such possibility.
The P.P.P as a political party plays no role in the prosecution of criminal matters. In fact, the Constitution specifically insulates political influence from the political process. The assertion, therefore, that the P.P.P failed to deliver a conviction in the Lusignan Massacre is simply ludicrous. The impression conveyed that the Attorney-General superintends the D.P.P in the discharge of her functions, is equally grounded in pure ignorance.
Article 187 of the Constitution, vests in the D.P.P, the power to institute, undertake, takeover, continue or discontinue criminal proceedings within the State of Guyana. It specifically provides that in the exercise of those powers, the D.P.P “shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority”.
The D.P.P has already issued a public statement on this matter when Mr. Hughes posed the question enquiring of the D.P.P and the Attorney General why one accused person was converted into a state witness in the Lusignan massacre murder trial. I deliberately ignored Mr. Hughes because I reckoned that he must be aware of the provisions of Article 187 and intended to be facetious by posing such a question to the Attorney-General.
The letter next proceeds to link me to Vernon Griffith, the foreman of the jury in that infamous trial, by contending that I had “a more recent relationship with Griffith” and later on, that I had “a more recent non-hostile relationship with that juror”. Unfortunately, the author did not explain the nature and purport of this “relationship” between Mr. Griffith and me. However, I surmise that there is only one issue to which he can be referring.
In October 2011, Mr. Manoj Narayan, Attorney-at-Law, and an associate in my law firm, filed an Action of libel for and on behalf of Vernon Griffith. I recall that when the Nigel Hughes fiasco hit the fan, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, in his haste to defend the Chairman of his party, held a press conference and produced those legal proceedings in his clumsy attempt to implicate me in a similar ethical mess.
Fortunately, the press quickly deciphered his attempt at artifice. Reporters, who were present, informed me that they examined the documents produced by Mr. Ramjattan and the documents were signed by Mr. Narayan and not me.
More fundamentally, neither Narayan, nor, of course, myself, appeared in any murder trial in which Griffith was a juror, more so the foreman. That was the gravamen of the complaint against Mr. Hughes. So, unfortunately for Mr.Ramjattan and by extension the A.F.C, commonsense and logic triumphed over gullibility. The story never made it.
To Mr. Griffith, I say, your attempt to daub other people’s mess on me will also not make it.
Mohabir Anil Nandlall
Attorney-General and
Minister of Legal Affairs

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Nandlall denies any relationship with jury foreman

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