Panday returns to court today

FORMER Prime Minister Basdeo Panday will appear before the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court this morning in connection with the three charges for failing to declare his London bank account to the Integrity Commission. But the case will not go on as Panday’s lawyers await a ruling from the High Court on a constitutional motion brought by him. Madame Justice Maureen Rajnauth-Lee, presiding in the Port-of-Spain Second Civil Court, heard the motion and reserved judgment on November 27. The judge is yet to deliver judgment in this all-important motion. Panday had a battery of attorneys headed by Allan Alexander SC to represent him in the High Court matter.

The State was represented by Jamaican attorney Lloyd Barnett. On April 8, Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls found merit in the submissions of Panday’s lead attorney Allan Alexander SC that the three charges against the UNC political leader were filed under a law which no longer exists. He then ordered that the matter be referred to the High Court for determination. Panday, 70, is charged with failing to declare an account at the National Westminster Bank in London in his name and that of his wife Oma, for the years 1997, 1998, and 1999. The defence is contending that Panday was charged under the Integrity in Public Life Act 1987, but that Act was repealed by the 2000 Act, and proclaimed by then President Arthur NR Robinson on November 6, 2000.