Appeal Court backdates trafficker’s 20-year term

The Court of Appeal yesterday varied the date of a 20-year sentence imposed on Nanlal Sooknanan on a conviction of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. Although Sooknanan’s 20-year sentence was affirmed, he will benefit from it being backdated to the date of his arrest, which will give him a reduction of about six prison years. Sooknanan, 42, was sentenced by Justice Pamela Elder on April 1, 2003, after he was found guilty of possession of 20 kilogrammes of cocaine. In passing sentence, Elder said that she was taking into consideration two important mitigating factors in Sooknanan’s favour. One was that Sooknanan had no previous convictions and the other was that he had spent four years in custody  from the date of his arrest to the date of conviction. At his appeal yesterday, his attorney Sean Cazabon told the court, comprising Justices Roger Hamel-Smith, Lionel Jones and Wendell Kangaloo, that after searching through the judge’s summation, he could not find any arguable ground of appeal. But wanted like to address the court on severity of sentence.

Cazabon submitted that it appeared as though the judge did not take those mitigating factors into consideration although she said she did. He reasoned that if she did, then she would not have imposed the maximum sentence of 20 years as it was then, on Sooknanan. She would have at least left something off as a result of those favourable factors, he suggested. Cazabon said  that the sentence was too excessive in those circumstances and invited the court to vary the sentence to properly take into account the two important mitigation factors in the appellant’s favour.

Special prosecutor Devan Rampersad accepted that the trial judge should have taken into consideration the fact that Sooknanan remained incarcerated for four years from his arrest to his trial, when passing sentence. He also noted that although the judge was informed of this, it was not clear that she had taken it into consideration when sentencing. He told the court that in the interest of justice, Sooknanan ought to benefit from this anomaly. Justice Hamel-Smith noted that a 20-year sentence in this type of case was appropriate, but he was also of the view that the trial judge did not give a reduction of sentence on the basis of the two favourable mitigating factors. The court decided to back-date Sooknanan’s sentence from the date of his arrest, April 13, 1999.

This means that Sooknanan will benefit from a reduction of four calendar years which will amount to about six prison years. The facts of the case was that Sooknanan was sitting in the driver’s seat of a car on the Solomon Hochoy Highway near Freeport, when a police vehicle stopped to investigate. The police saw a bag on the passenger seat and, on investigating, discovered 25 packets containing a total of 20 kilos of cocaine.