During the traditional champagne break, Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr. Denis Hanomansingh...turned up at Chief Justice Carl Singh's Chambers to break the news that his prosecutors were on a 'sit in'...

CHIEF Justice Carl Singh summoned the Prosecutors to a closed-door meeting.


THE October Criminal Sessions opened with a grand ceremonial parade yesterday, but never got further than that.

No cases were heard because State Prosecutors began an historic `sit in' for more pay.

Officials said this was the first time in the history of the country that lawyers of the State took action that led to a shutdown of the sessions soon after the formal opening.

No indictment from the list of 109 cases, that included 28 murders, for trial, could be presented and Justice William Ramlall had to advise jurors to go away and return Monday.

Officials said they hope that by then, the Prosecutors and the authorities concerned would have reached an amicable settlement in the pay row that would allow a return to normalcy and the presentation of indictments by the prosecution for trials by judge and jury.

Before the jurors were sent away yesterday Justice Ramlall noted that all was not well with their selection.

He said that of the 120 on the jury lists, 30 persons were wrongly selected and had to be discharged, leaving a complement of 90.

It was subsequently discovered that 28 of the 90 persons did not turn up.

And of these, 10 who had been summoned submitted to the court that by law, once they have served as jurors, they ought not to be called again for jury service until after two years.

After satisfying the judge that they had already served as jurors for this year and therefore were not eligible for selection according to law, they were discharged.

This left 52 jurors who were correctly selected - plus the 28 who did not turn up from the original list.

Justice Ramlall said investigations would be carried out to ascertain whether the summonses to serve were effected on the 28 persons who were absent.

According to him, if it was found that services had been effected, warrants of arrest would be issued for those concerned.

The traditional ceremonial parade to mark the opening of the October Criminal Sessions began at about 09:00 hrs.

All the judges in their red ceremonial gowns as worn at criminal trials were present as Justice Ramlall inspected a Guard of Honour drawn from 60 ranks of the Police Tactical Services Unit. He later took the salute from a dais on South Road, outside of the High Court, Georgetown, during a march-past.

The judges, in keeping with tradition then retired for champagne in the Chief Justice's Chambers - what should have been a prelude to the presentation of indictments by the Prosecution, for trial by jury.

But this did not happen.

During drinks time, Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr. Denis Hanomansingh, acting as plenipotentiary or emissary from his department, turned up at Chief Justice Carl Singh's Chambers to break the news that his prosecutors were on a 'sit in' and consequently no indictment would be presented until further notice.

Chief Justice Singh summoned the prosecutors to his Chambers where he met them behind closed doors.

The prosecutors did not say what transpired at the meeting but made it clear that because of a grievance over the failure of the authorities to respond to their demand for improved conditions that included increased salaries, they would be confined to office duties from yesterday.

They said they would not be attending court until their grievances were attended to.

Consequently, Justices Ramlall and Yonette Cummings-Edwards who were assigned to conduct the sessions, were confronted with empty courtrooms.

After meeting the Chief Justice, the officers of the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions said in a statement that steps had been taken to ensure that the judges "are aware of our intention not to present any indictments at this time."

"This action has been forced upon us by what appears to be a total disregard shown by Government for certain legitimate concerns which we have expressed and which we sought to correct through the intervention of Government", they said.

They said that on July 23 and September 10 this year, they wrote President Bharrat Jagdeo "expressing our long felt dissatisfaction with the terms of our employment."

According to the officers, they made "certain suggestions" for improvement but had received no response or acknowledgement by yesterday.

They said they were aware that the `sit in' "will cause inconvenience and hardship but this has been forced upon us."

"We hope that this action will encourage an early and positive reaction to our concern", the officers said.