Magistrate blanks request of accused to observe Eid al-Adha

Attorney Mario Merrit told Cedeno, on behalf of accused Rajaee Ali, his brothers Ishmael Ali and Hamid Ali and eight others, while the observance was not acknowledged as an official holiday in the Islamic calendar, it was an auspicious occasion usually observed through prayer.

Cedeno said she was not minded to accede to the request.

“I have already dealt with this issue in the past,” Cedeno said.

“I’m not going to entertain any queries about prayer. This is a court of law and as far as I can see, September 1 is a working day.” Also charged with murdering Seetahal on May 4, 2014 in Woodbrook are Devaughn Cummings, Ricardo Stewart, Earl Richards, Stephan Cummings, Kevin Parkinson, Leston Gonzales, Roger Boucher and Gareth Wiseman.

As the inquiry continued yesterday, defence and State attorneys argued over the admissibility of video footage as evidence using a laptop or other similar devices.

Merritt continued his objection to the use of video evidence without confirmation from State attorney George Busby that the device used for the viewing was fully functional.

However, Busby contended his position had not changed from last week’s hearing when he asserted there were no reasonable grounds to dismiss the evidence provided by the State.

“Your worship, he (Merritt) needs to show the court that at the material time, the computer the witness used was non-functional or the evidence was in any way inaccurate.

In other words, he needs to show that there are no reasonable grounds to indicate that the witness’ statement was inaccurate,” he said.

Merritt responded by saying it was the responsibility of the prosecution to provide the court with evidence of the laptop being functional.

However, the footage obtained from security cameras in and around the Ma Pau casino in Woodbrook was shown by the prosecution to the court.

During the latter half of yesterday’s proceedings, several accused expressed their discontent and restlessness at the slow pace of the inquiry.

Merritt expressed his dissatisfaction with the unwillingness of prosecutors to provide copies of their summary of evidence.

However, State attorney Gilbert Peterson SC hit back at Merritt by saying the defence was not entitled to view the detailed summary. Busby later agreed to provide Merritt with the documents by Friday.