Lawyers representing four people who applied under Section 34 of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Offences) Act appeared in the Port-of-Spain High Court yesterday for a status hearing. During the hearing before Justice Mira Dean-Armorer the applicants, through their attorneys, said they would wait until the appeal of the Section 34 constitutional motion case was determined before they decided on their next move.
The four applicants are former Maritime Life (Caribbean) Ltd executives John Henry Smith and Barbara Gomes, businesswoman Renee Pierre and former National Security Minister Russell Huggins. The appeal will be heard by the Appeal Court between October 21 and 24. After the legislation was proclaimed last August, 42 people applied under the legislation to have their criminal charges dismissed.
The act sought to abolish preliminary inquiries for serious criminal matters. It provided that if cases had not been started within ten years of the date when an offence had been committed, the accused could apply to have their matters dismissed. Most of the applicants under the legislation, who included businessman Ishwar Galbaransingh and former prime minister Basdeo Panday, face fraud charges arising out of the construction of the Piarco International Airport.
The others face unrelated criminal charges. When the legislation was repealed on September 14 last year, most of the applicants filed constitutional motions challenging the repeal. Before the Section 34 case was tried earlier this year, attorneys representing the applicants agreed that the constitutional motions of three of the applicants would be tried first as a test case to save judicial time.
The attorneys yesterday noted their clients’ applications and constitutional motions had not been determined and they were not bound by the test case. The judge adjourned the matters to October 4 when another status hearing would be held. Senior Counsel Fyard Hosein represented the four applicants while Gerald Ramdeen appeared for the State. The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was represented by Ian Benjamin.
Flashback
On April 5, Dean-Armorer dismissed all eight grounds raised by businessmen Steve Ferguson and Ameer Edoo and three insurance companies. The insurance companies are Maritime Life (Caribbean) Ltd, Maritime General Insurance Co Ltd and Fidelity Finance and Leasing Co Ltd. In her 175-page judgment, Dean-Armorer ruled the repeal of the legislation was not unconstitutional and did not infringe on the rights of the applicants. Ferguson and Edoo have appealed.
