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AG to respond to President over allegations of misconduct
President David Granger has asked Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, to respond in writing to the reports accusing him of misconduct.
President David Granger
An, unsigned letter which was circulated to various media platforms this past fortnight stated that the AG verbally abuses staff, engages in sexual misconduct and is grossly incompetent.
President Granger told reporters following an event at the Ministry of the Presidency yesterday that he is aware of the letter.
“I have seen a copy of the letter.”
Granger noted, however, that the letter is anonymous and “we have to be very careful with anonymous letters. If somebody had evidence, they’d put their name to it and be prepared to defend that evidence but if it is a fake letter, anybody can write anything.”
The Head of State said the AG is yet to respond in writing.
Meanwhile, on May 16, last, the Attorney General referring to allegations as ‘fake news in a post on his Facebook page, alleged that the letter is the work of the political opposition.
He noted that he has been practising law for over 32 years and no allegations of bribery of police, witnesses, jurors, magistrates or Judges were ever leveled against him.
General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams
Williams added that there was also no allegation of corruption leveled against him during his years as a Minister of Government.
“I reject out of hand the fake news of their newly acquired advisers,” he said in his social media post.
Williams is being accused of sexual, verbal, emotional, mental and physiological abuse of the staff of that Ministry.
An unsigned letter circulating on social media stated that people were said to be scared of coming out and supporting the allegations. It advised against people contacting some of the people identified.
This letter was sparked by statements Williams made at the Caribbean Court of Justice. The Attorney General was leading a team to the Trinidad-based CCJ to challenge the contention by the opposition that the no-confidence motion was valid.
In his address to the judicial panel in Trinidad, Williams accused the opposition People’s Progressive Party of creating and presiding over a narco-state.
This comment so incensed the PPP that it immediately caused the letter appearing on the social media to be distributed.
The letter, unsigned as it is, contained serious allegations designed to attack Williams’s character. The only material that appears to be credible are the names of 19 lawyers who worked in the advice and litigation department of the Attorney General’s Chambers.
To date, there has been one challenge to the unsigned letter. The letter reported that, “Mr. Fung-a-Fat (sic), Chief Parliamentary Counsel was not immune from this type of abuse.”
In a response that was published in the local newspapers, Mr. Charles Fung-a-Fat, Chief Parliamentary Counsel, stated that if he failed “to respond to this falsehood and not seek to correct it, I would be neglecting my moral duty and bring the office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel into disrepute.”
He said, “This falsehood has made me anxious that it could be possibly be entertained and believed by the people of Guyana, and more particularly, the Head of State.”
Asked to comment on the unsigned missive, Williams said that no one has ever accused him of sexual misconduct. He said that he has not been the only Government Minister that is being attacked at this time.
He said that the mature media simply ignored the letter on social media except for a media house that queried whether Williams was being investigated. The answer to that query was that the issue has not even reached the ears of the Government.
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