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Search warrant controversy…Only Magistrate can explain her actions – Ramjattan
Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, has said that only the Chief Magistrate, Ann McLennan, can explain why she read an application for a search warrant by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU)
in open court, thereby alerting the affected party.
Ramjattan told Kaieteur News recently, that he was surprised at how the Magistrate handled the matter.
“I do not like to make comments – being a President of the Guyana Bar Association for some years – in demeaning terms for any Judge or Magistrate, we do have our ethics.
But I rather thought that it was surprising what she did. But she may have got good reasons for doing that, I don’t know. But it is not generally the way you proceed with a search warrant. A search warrant also has the element of surprise in it. You do not go tell the person necessarily,” Ramjattan told Kaieteur News.
The Minister urged the media corps to ask the Magistrate, “If that is how she thought it ought to be done” while sharing his opinion: “I don’t know that is how it is done.”
The Chief Magistrate’s action has come under scrutiny by a number of persons within the legal fraternity.
Magistrate McLennan raised eyebrows a little over a week ago, after she dealt in the aforementioned manner with an application made by SOCU in relation to a search intended for the home of former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall.
SOCU had planned to raid Nandlall‘s home to retrieve 15 LexisNexis Commonwealth Law Reports in his possession, and for which the state is claiming ownership.
The law books are the subject of a criminal case that Nandlall is facing. He was arrested and charged earlier this year.
On Tuesday, SOCU officials reportedly went to the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court where they applied to Magistrate McLennan for a search warrant.
However, in what was described as highly unusual situation, the application by SOCU was read in open court by the Magistrate, before she reportedly ordered the officials from SOCU to return in the afternoon to uplift the warrant.
Hours later, Nandlall turned up at his home with a court order which he insisted bars SOCU and the police from searching his property until the outcome of a pending case.
Several legal minds weighing in on the matter noted that while the Chief Magistrate is empowered by law to handle such applications, the ethics employed by the Magistrate in dealing with the matter are up for debate.
Sources close to the issue have suggested that given the nature of the order, in practice, “The issuance of a search warrant should be treated with much sensitivity”.
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