Can’t keep a good man down

Mar 04, 2019 Letters

Dear Editor,
I am a young African Guyanese and like thousands of other Guyanese across the racial and political divide, I have great admiration and respect for Anil Nandlall. He is a brilliant lawyer and a tireless champion of the poor; fighting cases for the downtrodden, who other lawyers ignore.
I have been following the trumped-up larceny charge instituted against him by SOCU from the inception and there is no doubt that this charge is politically motivated. There is no doubt that Nandlall is being persecuted. The books value US$2000. Mr. Nandlall is on record even before the charge was instituted as saying that he purchased 14 new books and was willing to hand them over to SOCU.
In any normal case, this offer would have been accepted and no charge would have been instituted. But not in this case. What is even more worrying, and based on the articles I have read in the newspapers, it looks as if the court system is complicit in this persecution. Nandlall lawyers have complained in the court documents that the magistrate wants Nandlall to lead a defence even though the prosecution has not made out any case, for the defence to answer. This decision of the magistrate was challenge in the High Court.
According to the press reports, the Chief Justice invited the lawyers to address the court only on whether the court has jurisdiction to review the Magistrates’ Court’s decision. The Chief Justice ruled that she has jurisdiction to review the Magistrates’ Court decision but rather than conduct this review, she dismissed the case in its entirety. How can this be a fair hearing of a case?
From the press reports, I learned that Nandlall has challenged this decision in the Court of Appeal and has applied for a stay of the Magistrates’ Court’s decision while the appeal is awaiting a hearing date. I may be wrong but this appeal could not have been filed more than two months ago. I read in last Saturday’s Kaieteur News that the stay of the Magistrates’ Court proceedings was granted and the appeal was fixed for hearing on 20th March, 2019. I am not a lawyer but from all that I know this must be the shortest time fixed for an appeal to come up for hearing over the past 40 years or more.
My parents have a case pending in the Appeal Court and have been waiting for nearly five years for a date, but cannot get one. What is so important and urgent about Nandlall’s case? That is why it is difficult not to think that this is not a persecution that involves more than politicians.
It is really sad to see a young man who has done so much for the legal system and the rule of law in Guyana, is rewarded this way. Would it not be in the greater national interest for the Court of Appeal to fix the no-confidence appeals for hearing rather than a US$2000 trumped up case law book case? Stay strong Mr. Nandlall, they can never keep a good man down!
Sincerely,
Collin K. Dey

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