Insults hurled at Oma Panday

Mrs Panday appeared before Senior Magistrate Ejenny Espinet in the Port-of-Spain First Magistrates’ Court yesterday charged with aiding and abetting her husband in receiving 25,000 pounds sterling from Carlos John and Ishwar Galbaransingh on December 30, 1998.

At the time of the alleged offence, John was chairman of the Tourism Industry and Developement Company and Galbaransingh was chairman of Northern Construction Ltd, the main contractor on the Piarco Airport Terminal Development Project.

Mrs Panday appeared in court yesterday as her first appearance on Tuesday was cancelled as there was no magistrate present and the Clerk of the Peace remanded her to formally appear before the magistrate.

Panday, John, and Galbaransingh, appeared in court on Tuesday and were each granted bail. But Panday opted for jail. He has been sent to the Maximum Security Prison at Arouca.

When the matter was called yesterday, the magistrate read the charge to Mrs Panday and said it was laid indictably.

Prakash Ramadhar, who was representing Mrs Panday, brought to the attention of the court a disturbing development on Tuesday.

Ramadhar said while the Clerk of the Peace Eugene Prince was in the process of granting bail, a female clerk at the court hurled insults to the accused.

"Although Mr Prince ordered the clerk to remove herself from the precincts of the court, the clerk ignored this and continued to hurl insults at my client. It is very sad for a clerk in this building to hurl insults at my client," Ramadhar added.

On another issue, Ramadhar complained that the $750,000 bail granted to his client was too high. "There are too many obstacles and requirements in the way for giving bail to my client," the defence attorney added.

Magistrate: Isn’t your client out on bail?

RAMADHAR: Yes, and I must congratulate Mr Prince, who was not feeling well that day, but stayed to ensure that my client was out of here.

Ramadhar said that sometime in 2000, Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls ruled that it was illegal to put restrictions for granting bail. "We are seeing this with respect to the UNC. We are hoping that there is no bias from anywhere in this building against the UNC. Five years later, the very restrictions are still being placed there."

Ramadhar said $750,000 bail was placed on Mrs Panday whom he said was not a flight risk. "Imagine kidnapping and other offences carry bail in the sum of $75,000," Ramadhar told the court.

"Suppose Mr Prince could not have been here yesterday, then Mrs Panday would not have gotten bail. This has to stop. The Chief Magistrate has already pronounced on it and it has happened again. At $750,000, very few people could take that bail."

Ramadhar asked the magistrate to take judicial notice of his complaints, adding that the court can advise persons who set bail to be more streamlined.

However, Espinet said she could not tell such persons how to do their jobs.