Defence made to wait on immunity disclosure

THE State is yet to make disclosures to defence attorney Karl Hudson-Phillips QC about the granting of immunity from prosecution to Junior Morris, a witness it intends to call in the prosecution of Prof Vijay Naraynsingh, his wife Seeromanie and San Fernando businessman Elton Ramasir, for the murder of Naraynsingh’s wife. Yesterday, when hearing of the Preliminary Inquiry continued in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court, Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard told Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington that information was sent to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) regarding the immunity issue which the DPP was currently examining. Gaspard said, “On December 24, Christmas Eve, certain pieces of correspondence were sent to the DPP and they were looking at it.”

Gaspard also told the court that checks had to be made on some correspondence which involves communication with Interpol. Gaspard told the magistrate that he intends to address concerns expressed in correspondence sent to the DPP office, but he did not say when he would disclose it to Hudson-Phillips. Hudson-Phillips had requested that the State indicate if  Parris was charged with a certain offence at last Friday’s hearing. Yesterday, three more witnesses testified, bringing the total number of persons giving evidence in the inquiry to 12. Gaspard informed the magistrate that the State had a total of 20 witnesses to testify in the hearing.

The three who took the witness box yesterday were WPC Paulene Phillips and PC Daniel Hernandez (Homicide Bureau in Port-of-Spain) and acting Insp Sahadeo Singh of the Port-of-Spain CID.  Phillip was cross-examined by Hudson-Philips and attorney Prakash Ramadhar. Gaspard suggested that Friday be  the next hearing date, but indicated that he needed a longer period because of the checks which the DPP office needed to make on matters of disclosure, and which involve communication between the DPP office and Interpol. Gaspard requested a longer adjournment period and the magistrate fixed hearing to next week Thursday. Dr Chandra Naraynsingh was gunned down at the Langmore Health Centre in May 1994.