Mayor Atherley returns to Court

A MERE 48 hours after he was sworn in as the new Mayor of San Fernando, Ian Atherley appeared before a San Fernando magistrate yesterday as the case against him, in which he is charged with ballot-box tampering, continued. Atherley’s attorney Ian Seukeran, a relative of San Fernando (West) MP Diane Seukeran (whose campaign manager for the last General Elections was Atherley), blasted the prosecution for seeking another adjournment. Seukeran complained to Senior Magistrate Mark Wellington, who presided over the First Court, that Atherley could not afford to be “wasting time” given his busy schedule and the “tremendous responsibility” he has in his new capacity as San Fernando Mayor.  “San Fernando people cannot have their Mayor coming here (to the courts) time and time again and wasting time. He has certain responsibilities,” Seukeran told the court. But Magistrate Wellington obliged the prosecution’s adjournment request and postponed the case to August 13.

Atherley’s lead attorney, Theodore Guerra SC, said he hoped to bring an end to  the case on the next occasion. Yesterday, the public sitting gallery of the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court was packed to capacity for the hearing of the Mayor’s case. A dapper Atherley, dressed in a light grey suit, shook hands and greeted numerous supporters, attorneys and policemen who congratulated him on attaining the Mayoral seat as he made his way into the First Court. Atherley was sworn-in on Monday morning as the Mayor of San Fernando. Yesterday, the court heard evidence from two State witnesses — Caribbean Com-munications Network (CCN) employees’ Michael Ramsingh and Natalie Sequea. The video footage of a TV6 news broadcast was again showed in court as was the case during the last hearing of the matter on July 17.