AG threat against K/News...No evidence to charge Attorney General - DPP

AG threat against K/News…No evidence to charge Attorney General – DPP

Dec 23, 2014 News

After a delay of more than a month, Director of Public Prosecutions, Shalimar Ali-Hack, has finally advised

Attorney General
Anil Nandlall

that there is no evidence to charge Attorney General Anil Nandlall over threats he allegedly made during a telephone conversation with Kaieteur News Senior Reporter, Leonard Gildarie.
The DPP said in a statement, yesterday, that the file on the matter has been returned to the police, advising that no charges be laid against Nandlall.
The advice comes a few days after several persons protested outside her office accusing her of compromising the integrity of her office.
Kaieteur News Publisher, Glenn Lall, had filed a complaint with the police, alleging that the Attorney General threatened the safety of his employees when during the conversation, he spoke of an imminent attack on the newspaper’s main office on Saffon Street, if the entity continued with its exposure of government corruption.
The DPP in her statement referred to the recorded conversation between “personal friends” Gildarie and Nandlall as private. Based on the evidence contained in the police file, the conversation was “not between the Attorney General…and Mr. Glenn Lall.”
She explained that the offence created in Section 141(a) Chapter 8:02 is in relation to the speaker using threatening language with intent to provoke anyone else to commit a breach of the peace, that is, provoking another person to do so.
According to the DPP, the threatening language must be such as is likely to provoke a breach of the peace by anyone else that is the person to whom the threat is directed.

Director Of Prosecutions Shalimar Ali-Hack

She said that for the threatening language to result in provocation, the threat must be directly communicated to the person to whom it concerns, that is, in his presence and hearing.
“There is no evidence of this contained in the police file,” the DPP stated.
She further stated that the offence created in Section 141 (b) Chapter 8:02 is in relation to the person using abusive, insulting, obscene or profane language to the annoyance of another, that is, such language is used directly to the other person in his presence and annoys him.
“There is no evidence of this (also),” she pointed out.
“The alleged recording of a telephone conversation between the Attorney-General and the Minister of
Legal Affairs and Mr. Gildarie, does not fall under Section 1a1 (a) or (b) Chapter 8:02,” Ali-Hack stated.
“In these circumstances the communication to Mr. Gildarie does not provide an evidential basis which
can support the institution of criminal proceedings,” she added.
The DPP was criticized for “pussyfooting” on the matter, which was described by many legal minds as a straightforward case.

Kaieteur News Publisher
Glenn Lall

Reference was made to the advice she gave in the matter involving alleged threats made to Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur by Glen Lall.
Sattaur had also expressed concern over the length of time the DPP was taking to advice on that matter.
But Ali-Hack explained that the police file in the matter was received at her Chambers on November 18, last, and was returned to the Guyana Police Force yesterday.
She said that, similarly, the police file in the matter of Khurshid Sattaur vs. Glenn Lall for the offence of alleged abusive language and threat was received by her Chambers on October 14, 2014 and was dispatched to the GPF on November 11.
“The DPP takes this opportunity to reiterate that she continues to maintain the integrity of the DPP Chambers by giving legal advice according to the statements in the police files and the Laws of Guyana and this is done free of race, religion and political affiliation,” the statement said.