Martineau, Petersen made calls

Martineau is a member of Chief Justice Sat Sharma’s legal team. Sharma is challenging attempts by the police to arrest him on a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

So far the police have been unable to execute the warrant by order of Judge Jones.

Judge Jones who is hearing the matter, is due today to give a decision on the various injunctions she has ordered preventing the police from arresting Sharma.

Since last Friday when Newsday exclusively reported seven telephone calls between Sharma’s residence and Judge Jones’ cell and office phones, Martineau who is the chairman of the Council of the Law Association, has made at least two statements to the media but at no point did he admit that he and Ms. Petersen were the two people who had made the calls to the Judge from the CJ’s Residence.

Yesterday’s fax (624-2094) stated that the calls were made when the police refused to accept the word of the Registrar to the effect that Judge Jones’ order had been varied that afternoon. The statement also claimed that it was therefore necessary for Judge Jones to speak directly to the police.

According to the fax: “ this direct communication was facilitated by the use of a landline at the Chief Justice’s residence as there were persistent failures in cell phones communications.”

“At no time did either the Chief Justice or Justice Stanley John, Justice of Appeal, speak to Judge Jones or in any way attempt to influence her. All communications with Judge Jones were exclusively and entirely for the purpose of clarifying what her orders were and this became necessary only because the police had refused to accept thword of the Registrar.”

The fax was reportedly sent from the court protocol officer but there was no name or signature attached to it.

The statement arrived one day after a statement by the Attorney General, informing the public that the Cabinet had directed him to take “immediate action” to ensure that the rights of every single citizen to equal access to the courts and equal treatment before the law are observed.