Partap appeals $5,000 fine

Hearing of the appeal came up for hearing before Justices of Appeal Alice Yorke-Soo Hon and Mark Mohammed yesterday.

At yesterday’s hearing, Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) George Busby indicated that the State was seeking to adduce fresh evidence in Partap’s challenge.

Yorke-Soo Hon said given that the matter is one of high public interest, the court was willing to entertain the prosecution’s application for an adjournment. The matter will again come up for hearing on January 27. Busby has until mid-December to file the application to adduce additional evidence, while defence attorney Ravi Rajcoomar has until mid-January to reply to the application.

Partap was charged in August 2012 for refusing to submit himself to the test outside the Zen Nightclub at Keate Street, Port-of-Spain.

On July 29, 2013, Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar, presiding in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Court, imposed the $5,000 fine on Partap after rejecting a no-case submission made by defence attorney Israel Khan, SC. In delivering her ruling, Ayers-Caesar had said she believed the evidence presented by Busby and State attorney Simone Jaggernauth was credible, reliable and compelling.