Lawyers continue tit- for-tat over documents

During yesterday’s proceedings, defence attorneys questioned the validity of the witness’ evidence insisting that it was clear that documents the prosecution attempted to tender into evidence, were tampered with after being seized by the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau (ACIB).

Raising the objection was attorney Fyard Hosein SC, who submitted to presiding magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls that the witness was unable to properly identify the documents presented to him.

"These documents were seized in January, 2002, almost three and a half years ago. In the interim, those documents were not properly secured. What we need to find out is the exact chain of custody of the documents. As it is here, these documents are of zero value, as it is clear that they were tampered with, and as a result, the witness remains unable to say whether these documents are in fact the ones seized from Maritime Ltd," argued the attorney.

In support of his colleague’s submission, Senior Counsel Frank Solomon argued further that the evidence given by Boyd does not suggest that the witness was the one who seized the documents, but that he was in charge of the execution of the search warrant which led to the seizure of the documents.

After the objections, Peterson countered that there was sufficient evidence to support that the documents were secured from the time they were seized.

"The evidence of Boyd on the last occasion was that he put his initials on the documents, handed them over to Maurice Piggott (head of the ACIB) who then placed the same documents in a vault. This does not place any question over the admissibility of the documents. The witness has said these are the documents he seized and has said the means by which he can identify them," said Peterson.

After hearing the submissions from both sides, the Chief Magistrate overruled the objections, and informed the defence that he found the documents were admissible.

Eight persons and three companies are charged with a total of 21 offences relating to the new terminal development project at Piarco Airport. They include former government ministers Brian Kuei Tung and Russel Huggins; CEO of Northern Construction Ltd (NCL) Ish Galbaransingh; CEO of Maritime General Insurance Company John Henry Smith; Maritime Group of Companies chairman Steve Ferguson; company secretary Barbara Gomes; businesswoman Renee Pierre, and Fidelity Insurance and Leasing Company Ltd.

Hearing resumes today.