Appeal Court decision in two weeks

Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls  exceeded his jurisdiction when he ordered the prosecution  in the $19m airport authority fraud case, to provide a list (disclosure) of all  documents it  had in the case to the defence, said attorney Gilbert Peterson yesterday.

Peterson, who is representing the DPP in an application to the Court of Appeal to strike down Mc Nicolls’ order, said that the ordering of the list and its contents at this stage of the proceedings, could prejudice the prosecution and cast upon it an almost insurmountable burden. He warned that the defence challenge to the prosecution’s discharge of its duty of disclosure should be viewed in light of caution expressed by Justice Simon Brown.  
     
In rebuffing submissions made by defence attorneys that the Court of Appeal does not have power to hear appeals of an administrative nature in preliminary inquiries, Peterson argued that the  function of a magistrate must be subject to the supervision of a superior court. He said that other cases have not decided that the function of an inquiring magistrate is outside the reach of the supervisory powers of the Court of Appeal.

On another issue raised by defence attorneys Alan Alexander SC, Russell Martineau SC, Frank Solomon SC, Desmond Allum SC, Gillian Lucky, Fayard Hosein, Reginald Armorer, Devesh Maharaj and Rajiv Persad, Peterson said the definition of “inferior court” is wide enough to encompass a preliminary inquiry, and that there was nothing in the language used in the definition to restrict the application of section 36 of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act to summary trials. The court hearing the matter comprises Justice Margot Warner (President), Justice Rolston Nelson and Justice Stanley John.

After five days of argument the matter has come to an end and  the Court of Appeal will  give its judgement within two weeks. Before Mc Nicolls are former Minister of Finance Brian Kuei-Tung, former Minister of National Security Russell Huggins, businessman Ishwar Galbaransingh, Amrith Maharaj, Steve Ferguson, John Smith, Renee Pierre and Barbara Gomes. They are jointly charged with Maritime Fidelity Finance and Leasing Company, and Northern Construction Limited, with conspiring to defraud the AA of over $19 million.