AG: No conspiracy to let Jamaat keep $23M

Attorney General Glenda Morean announced that as of April 2003 the Jamaat al Muslimeen owes the State $23 million awarded by the High Court for damages done in the 1990 attempted coup.

Morean revealed this to the Senate yesterday during an acrimonious session in response to a question from the Opposition.  She said the figure had grown with interest from an initial award of $15 million. Morean said the court had originally granted a stay of execution on January 15, 2001 but this had since expired. She declared: “No stay of execution is in force now.” Morean said the Jamaat’s appeal against the judgment had been dismissed on May 10, 2002, and on September 9, 2002 the State had registered the judgment for enforcement. She said: “The Chief State Solicitor has been instructed to pursue all legal options available to the State.”

The Opposition asked her when she had so instructed the Chief State Solicitor and pressed her as to why the enforcement was taking so long. She replied that it was ironic to hear that question from Leader of Opposition Business, Wade Mark, who himself had been a member of the previous administration which had made the first payment of $1.5 million to the Jamaat. Answering a supplementary Opposition question as to whether the Government had given the Chief State Solicitor enough resources to pursue enforcement of the award, Morean said: “The Chief State Solicitor is seeing what they could do, to see the judgment is enforced properly.”

Pressed as to when the country would collect the $23 million from the Jamaat, Morean said: “I cannot answer that. I have answered as best as I can.” At that Mark stood and challenged: “Is there a conspiracy between the Jamaat al Muslimeen and the Government to deny the country its just due?” Morean retorted: “There’s no conspiracy. The judgment is from June 15, 2000, and perhaps it (a conspiracy) started then. There is no conspiracy.” Pressed as to whether the Government had failed to give the Chief State Solicitor sufficient resources to pursue the matter, Morean replied: “I would not agree.”