Mohammed submits statement to PM

High Court Judge Mark Mohammed yesterday handed in his statement on the Chief Justice issue to the Prime Minister’s office at Whitehall. Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who was at a parliamentary retreat at the Chancellor Hotel, St Ann’s, was not at Whitehall yesterday. However, it is understood that Mohammed’s statement was immediately passed on to the PM’s lawyers in Port-of-Spain. The statement was also swiftly sent off  to the PM’s attorneys in London. Mohammed’s submission came two weeks after Manning sought his assistance with respect to a December 6 meeting between Sharma and the Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Henderson in the CJ’s chambers, at which Mohammed was present.

Sources revealed that Mohammed’s account of what was said at that meeting supported Henderson’s version of the events, and not that of Sharma’s.  Is was also disclosed that Mohammed reported in his statement that he left the meeting feeling “uncomfortable.” The issue surrounds a letter dated December 2001, which Sharma raised with the DPP and which, according to Sharma, spoke of a conspiracy to falsely implicate Dr Vijay Naraynsingh in the murder of his wife, Chandra. in his statement, Henderson said the CJ told him that former DPP Mark Mohammed had told him of the existence of such a letter. Henderson said he told the CJ that he (Henderson) knew nothing of such a letter.

He said the CJ insisted that there was such a letter and that Henderson should keep looking for it as it was grounds for stopping the prosecution of Naraynsingh. According to Henderson, the CJ then called in former DPP, Mohammed, to question him on the letter. Mohammed stated that his recollection was “hazy” and that he remembered receiving something, but could give no specifics. In his statement, however, Sharma said Mohammed confirmed the existence of the letter. Sharma also gave other details of what was said to Henderson in the presence of Mohammed. The Prime Minister is now in possession of all the documents and is expected to make a decision on whether or not to advise the President to appoint a Tribunal to investigate allegations of misconduct by Sharma made by the Attorney General John Jeremie and DPP Henderson.