Anil Nandlall makes the record unambiguous

Jan 22, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to a letter published in the Kaieteur News on 21-01-2017, under the caption “Double Standard of Anil Nandlall” written by Carl Witherspoon. Mr. Witherspoon completely misunderstood what I said about the Special Prosecutors. I expressed three criticisms.
Firstly, that these prosecutors are hired by the Government and paid for by money budgeted by the Government. This is unconstitutional. The constitution resides the Director of Public Prosecutions with the exclusive responsibility to prosecute criminal offences; that if prosecutors outside of the DPP’s are to be retained, it is only the DPP who can lawfully do so; that it is not the role and function of the Executive to prosecute criminal offences.
Secondly, that the prosecutors chosen were handpicked and are friends, allies and relatives of Ministers of the Government. Therefore, the process stinks of cronyism, nepotism and political patronage. Thirdly, that the Minister of Finance cut the DPP’s budget by several millions thereby affecting the DPP from prosecuting those charged with serious criminal offences such as murder, rape and robberies but budgets $100,000,000 to prosecute political opponents, PPP leaders and Former Ministers of the PPP Government.
Sanjeev Datadin and yours truly were retained by the DPP as Special Prosecutors, not the Government. The Linden Commission of Inquiry was not a prosecution but an inquiry commissioned by the President and therefore, it is the Government in that instance that had the responsibility of hiring lawyers for the Commission.
During my tenure as Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, neither Sase Gunraj nor Manoj Narayan was ever retained by the AG’s Chambers to do any case. In fact, the only lawyers in private practice whom I ever retained to do cases for the State, were Stephen Fraser, Roysdale Forde and Kamal Ramkarran. None has any known affiliation with the PPP. I hope I have set the public’s record straight on these matters.
Mohabir Anil Nandlall M.P.
Attorney-at- Law

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