Lawyers block PS from giving evidence

CHERYL BLACKMAN, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of the Attorney General, made a brief appearance at the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court to give further evidence in the Lance Small extradition case, but had to return to her office because lawyers embarked on legal submissions. Blackman had given evidence in the matter on a previous occasion and was due to be further questioned by Small’s attorney Pamela Elder SC. But Senior Magistrate Joanne Connor relieved the PS pending the determination of the legal issues. Elder said she had gotten a copy of the bundle of documents which the United States Government was planning to tender into evidence.

She complained that the request for Small’s extradition was not part of the bundle. Elder said the bundle had to be authenticated by an official of the Department of State in the United States and must be certified by the principal diplomatic consular of Trinidad and Tobago at the TT Embassy in Washington DC. She said although Paul Byam, Principal Consular Officer at the TT Embassy “certified” the document, Elder said it was really a document to show that papers were to be used in support of the application for the extradition of Lance Small. Elder found it strange that the affidavit of the main US witness Keith Glaude was not sworn to as the other affidavits in the bundle of documents. “Why all the other affidavits were sworn to, including Roger Powell’s, but not Glaude’s?” she asked.