More Summary Courts Prosecutors to be trained

Jan 14, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – The Department of Law of the University of Guyana (UG) is currently taking applications from persons interested in enrolling in the second Cohort of the Certificate in Advocacy and Evidence for Summary Courts and Prosecutor’s Course (the Course), officially launched in 2022.

Classes are scheduled to begin later this month. In 2022, seventy-one (71) persons applied to take the Course. Of the persons who have gradated, thirty (30) persons are currently functioning in the Magistrates’ Courts of Regions 3, 4, 5 6 and 10.

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC MP, has said that thirty-five (35) scholarships will once again be made available for persons willing to become Summary Court Prosecutors for the State.

Priority will be given to persons from Regions 1, 2, 7, 8, and other Regions with a lower number of Prosecutors, since the Attorney General is looking to bolster the number of Summary Court Prosecutors in each of Guyana’s ten (10) Administrative Regions, a statement from the Attorney General’s office said Friday.

The UG has already received quite a number of applications and will be closing the application period soon, the statement said while noting that the Course is the product of a collaborative effort between The Attorney General’s Chambers and Ministry of Legal Affairs, UG, SCJSP, and the Inter-American Development Bank, which funded the Course’s development, and is providing additional funding this year.

The Course, which is only open to persons who already hold a Bachelors of Laws (LLB), and or third-year LL.B students, and has been developed, and structured to equip students with in-depth knowledge of procedural and substantive law concerning ethics, the law of evidence, criminal practice and procedure, fundamental human rights, and aspects of constitutional and legislative interpretation.

Classes on these topics were delivered last year by esteemed and eminent legal minds, including: Madame Justice Roxane George SC, Chief Justice of the Judiciary of Guyana, Madame Justice Jo Ann Barlow, Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall, Madame Shalimar Ali-Hack SC, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Professor Kenneth Benjamin, former Chief Justice of Belize, Professor Courtney Abel, former Justice of the High Court of Belize; Mr. Darshan Ramdhani KC, and Magistrate Dillon Bess.

“To allow them to prosecute matters in Guyana’s Magistrates’ Courts, the Graduates of the Course were inducted into the Guyana Police Force (GPF), and given the rank of Sergeant. They then underwent an additional week of training which was aimed at acquainting them with the rules, regulations, and standing orders of the GPF,” the AG’s office said.

Further, though the students were made police officers to execute their prosecutorial duties, they are not required to carry out any other duties usually required of police officers.

The Attorney General also sought and obtained permission for the Summary Courts Prosecutors to dress in civilian garb, as opposed to police uniforms. These Summary Court Prosecutors will take home approximately one hundred and sixty thousand Guyana Dollars ($160,000) monthly. Their gross salaries, inclusive of allowances will amount to approximately two-hundred and twenty thousand Guyana Dollars ($220,000).

This sum was arrived at through collaborative efforts between the Attorney General’s Chambers, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Meanwhile, reminding that the ongoing initiative is a pilot project, the Attorney General has also expressed his intention to continue monitoring the project to address any and all teething issues which arise.

Toward this end, the Attorney General, along with the Director of Public Prosecutions, Shalimar Ali-Hack SC, Commissioner of Police (ag) Clifton Hicken, and Assistant Commissioner Calvin Brutus, met with the Prosecutors on January 12, 2023 to listen to, and address any issues they are having.

The initiative is the brain-child of the Attorney General of Guyana, and is the first of its kind in the Commonwealth Caribbean.

“As such, it is being monitored by other States which are interested implementing similar initiatives,” the statement concluded.

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Attorney General’s office, Department of Law, Magistrates’ Courts, Summary Courts and Prosecutor’s, University of Guyana

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