Justice John: DPP admits CJ meetings not improper

Justice Stanley John, a judge of the Court of Appeal, said in an affidavit that Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Geoffrey Henderson  had admitted to him that he did not consider the meetings he, Henderson and the Attorney General had with the Chief Justice, as improper. Further, the affidavit stated that Henderson claimed there was no truth in a daily newspaper article that Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma had hauled him and AG John Jeremie “over the coals.” John’s affidavit was in support of a judicial review motion filed by the CJ to stop the decision of  Prime Minister Patrick Manning to have President George Maxwell Richards appoint a tribunal to probe alleged misconduct by the CJ with respect to Dr Vijay Naraynsingh’s murder inquiry. On Wednesday, Justice Humphrey Stollmeyer granted the CJ leave to file for judicial review.

John’s affidavit, filed on April 12, 2005, set out conversations involving himself, the CJ, the DPP and the AG with respect to the contents of the article. In his affidavit, John said that the DPP told him that  shortly after midday on December 31, 2004, he, John, received a telephone call from a source close to him at the newspaper, alerting him to an article which the newspaper proposed to publish the following Sunday under the caption “CJ hauls DPP and AG over the coals,” with respect to the Naraynsingh murder case. John reported that the DPP was very concerned about the proposed publication, which adverted to a series of meetings that were held by him, and in some cases by the AG, with the CJ, which had been characterised as being “highly improper.”

According to the five-page affidavit, Henderson had contacted John asking him to alert the CJ about the intended article. John said, “I also suggested to Mr Henderson that if the aforesaid intended article was not true and that nothing of the kind transpired between him and the Chief Justice, he should immediately write to the newspaper to that effect.” John also added: “Mr Henderson assured me that nothing of the kind had taken place and that he would heed my advice and personally hand deliver a letter to the newspaper that afternoon, it being Friday and the last working day in the year.”

John said he contacted the CJ and later the CJ telephoned the AG and informed him of the intended article. John said he understood from the CJ that the AG would arrange for a colleague who had good relations with the press to contact the newspaper and inform them of the falsity of the intended article, and get the assurance that it would not be published. The affidavit said the following day the DPP spoke to attorney Dana Seetahal who informed him that she had seen the article to be published and described it as a “watered down version” of the original article. On Sunday January 3, 2005, the article was published under the headline, “Naraynsingh Murder Inquiry — Racism charges against staff of DPP’s office.”