State attorney: Immunity waived so diplomat can be tried

STATE prosecutor Marissa Gomez revealed yesterday that the immunity granted to diplomat Bissoon Boodhai was waived and therefore, he can be tried with conspiracy to traffic cocaine. Gomez responded to submissions made by Boodhai’s attorney Rangee Dolsingh SC on November 3 in which Dolsingh asked that the case against his client be dismissed because there was no evidence to show that Boodhai was ever in Trinidad when the alleged offence was committed.

But yesterday, Gomez turned up and responded to the submissions. She appeared in court ably assisted by a crutch and had to sit at the bar table to reply. When the submissions were completed, the magistrate reserved her ruling to January 21 of next year. Boodhai, Micah Smith, and Kurt Alexis, appeared before Magistrate Lianne Lee Kim in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Magistrates’ Court yesterday charged with conspiracy to traffic cocaine in a pouch belonging to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is alleged that during the period November 30, 2003, and May 8, 2004, in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and elsewhere, the three accused conspired together to traffic cocaine. Smith and Alexis are also charged with trafficking cocaine. Dolsingh had requested clarity on the term “elsewhere.” He asked, “How can my client be charged with committing an offence ‘elsewhere?”’

Gomez, in response, said there was no necessity to identify in an indictment the place where an offence is alleged to have taken place unless it is material to the charge. “In this case, the accused knows the substance of the charge against him and should the prosecution be allowed to proceed and lead its evidence, the accused will most definitely know the case he has to answer.” Dolsingh had argued that Boodhai was never in Trinidad when the offence was alleged to have occurred. He also argued that Boodhai, as a diplomatic representative of the TT High Commission in London, had diplomatic immunity. Gomez accepted that Boodhai had diplomatic status and diplomatic immunity while he was posted in London. However, she pointed out that upon his recent return to Trinidad, that immunity was waived.

On the issue that Boodhai was outside the jurisdiction at all times, Gomez said the prosecution intended to show that the conspiracy to traffic in dangerous drugs, as in this case, was by and large forged within this jurisdiction “and it matters not that one of the alleged co-conspirators (Boodhai) was outside of Trinidad and Tobago at the time.” She continued, “He was still a party to the conspiracy.” In response, Dolsingh argued that Boodhai was never informed that his diplomatic immunity was waived. He said his client does not know when the immunity was waived. He was also at a loss as to how his client could be charged in London if the offence was committed in Trinidad. “If someone is killed in the Trinidad and Tobago mission in England, England has jurisdiction to try him if the immunity is waived.” Lee Kim said she needed an opportunity to study the submissions before she gives her ruling.