Police charges discussed

Prime Minister Patrick Manning visited President Professor George Maxwell Richards yesterday morning to discuss developments in the country involving high judicial officials and complaints made against them.

After his “long discussions” with the President, Manning decided that it would be “inappropriate” for him to leave the country at this time. He therefore cancelled his trip to Spain and Austria. In the process Manning would be foregoing a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, which was to take place during the EU-LAC Summit in Austria. Foreign Affairs Minister Knowlson Gift will attend the Spain/Caricom Summit and the EU-LAC Summit on the PM’s behalf.

Manning’s discussions with the President dealt with police charges. It is understood that the matter which has been passed on to the Director of Public Prosecutions, is now the subject of police investigation.

Yesterday’s development followed a report by Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls which was sent to Manning in which Mc Nicolls complained that a senior judicial officer had attempted to influence the outcome of the recent Basdeo Panday trial, in which Mc Nicolls was the presiding magistrate.

This latest complaint about the judicial officer has created further turmoil in legal and political circles, already facing a crisis involving the Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma.

The Attorney General issued a release yesterday on the matter, Giving a summary of his meeting with Mc Nicolls in which he (Mc Nicolls) reported on “a suspicious sequence of events related to a real estate transaction”. See page 10.

“The Chief Magistrate said he was informing the Attorney General out of an abundance of caution, given the importance of the judgment he was to deliver, so that the Attorney General could determine whether there should be any investigations into the matter,” the release stated.

In the AG’s release, he also took note of “the calculated attempts to tarnish the reputations of persons involved in this matter, which in his respectful view is not relevant to the key issue of the complaint before the Prime Minister at this time.”

Urging restraint by the media, AG John Jeremie said he regretted that much of what had been said about the Chief Magistrate and his motives for acting, were matters first raised at a (UNC) political meeting in Felicity on Monday May 1.

The Opposition UNC at a news conference held by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday slammed the Government and called for an inquiry into some of the highest judicial and political office-holders in the land. Persad-Bissessar conceded that because the matter related to the Panday case, the UNC had a political interest in the matter. But she stressed that the party also had a general interest in the rule of law whether it related to Panday or any other citizen.

The Law Association which met yesterday also issued a release which dealt more with criticising headlines in the press and with blasting the media than with the central issue of the complaint made by Mc Nicolls against the senior judicial officer.

The Law Association, however, made the point that the Prime Minister may refer any report which he receives to either the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Commissioner of Police for their consideration.