On Christmas Day, 2014 the law is still an ass

Dec 25, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I don’t care which law the brightest lawyer in the world cite to justify the Chief Justice’s decision that Carol Sooba can remain in office, that law is an ass.
That law cannot be legal, moral and commonsensical in the face of the decision by the CJ himself that the Minister of Local Government did not have the legal authority to appoint Sooba in the first place. Once Sooba’s appointment was legally improper, Sooba’s existence as Town Clerk becomes untenable.
Sooba continues in office because the law is an ass. I don’t care which lawyer pushes out his chest, says he is the brightest person since Archimedes discovered the principle of flotation and refers to me as an ignorant layman, my point is, if there is a law in Guyana that legally justifies Sooba’s continuation in office, that law is a jackass. That law should be removed from the statute books.
From Sooba we come to the Nandlall tape. Nothing surprises me in the judicial system in this country. Before I come to the DPP’s position on the Nandlall tape, read what happened last Monday in the libel trial.
After being given leave by the judge in March 2014 to appeal a decision in the ongoing trial, Bharrat Jagdeo’s lawyers came on December 9 and told the judge that they didn’t file the appeal.
Here is the reason why. Jagdeo’s junior lawyer explained that since March he was unable to consort with his senior partner on the points of the appeal. This man told a judge that from March to December he was unable to sit down and talk with his senior partner on one of the most important court cases in Guyana’s legal history.
On December 9 the judge gave them up to December 22 to submit statements which were to be tendered since March. They appeared on December 22 and still did not do that. There and then I thought the libel trial would resume with the defence witnesses resuming their testimony.
Now here what they did. They informed the judge that they are now going to the Full Court headed by the Chief Justice to get permission to file the appeal OUT OF TIME.
Don’t get confused. This is not the filing of the appeal itself. This is a plea to the court to grant them permission to file an appeal OUT OF TIME. That will be a court case by itself and will take up time. If permission is granted to appeal OUT OF TIME, then they file the appeal and the libel trial is suspended until the appeal is heard. This is the judicial system in Guyana.
We come now to Mrs. Shalimar Hack, the DPP. She has given the nation a rude Christmas gift just three days before Christmas. She ruled that there is no basis in law to charge Mr. Nandlall. The fulcrum of that ruling is that Mr. Nandlall did not directly threaten Mr. Glenn Lall. Pardon me madam! Your slip is showing!
John tells Mary that he hates Basil and is planning to kill him and burn his house and he will do so with weapons he has accumulated. In law, nothing could be done to John because he told Mary what he will do to Basil and not Basil himself.
Okay, here is my contention and it is identical with the CJ’s ruling in the Sooba case. If there is a law under which Mr. Nandlall cannot be charged for what he said on that tape then that law is an ass.
The DPP’s ruling on the Nandlall tape raises some hell-raising questions. On what basis was Mr. and Mrs. Munroe and Mr. Wharton charged for treason when their conversation was taped. If based on the taped conversation they were taken before the courts, then why not Nandlall? On what basis was Glenn Lall charged for threatening Khurshid Sattaur?
In Guyana under the PPP, the ass in the law is running wild. But also the political engine that propels the law is in overdrive. In my opinion, politics was the pivotal reason Mr. Nandlall was not charged. Politics is the reason why Lall was charged. Politics is the reason why the Munroes and Mr. Wharton were charged. Politics is the reason why Mr. Arjoon of the New Building Society was charged
In Guyana politics decides if the law of the jungle rules or the rule of law is supreme. Since the rule of law is not supreme then we live with the law of the jungle in this country. If anything is a mockery, a circus, a school of clowns performing in Guyana, it is the rule of law.

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On Christmas Day, 2014 the law is still an ass

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