Nothing inhuman about Yassin, Thomas hanging --- AG Ramson
THE Attorney General (AG), Senior Counsel Charles yesterday wrapped up his arguments against further reprieving condemned murderers Abdool Kaleem Yassin and Noel Thomas. Mr Ramson submitted to Justice Winston Moore that, once the delay in executing them was due to their own actions, there was nothing inhuman for the State to carry out the death sentence after all the legal exercises have been gone through. The AG said a good way to ascertain whether the hanging should take place is to ask oneself if it would shock the conscience of the Guyanese people. "If this Executive were to carry out the death penalty today, it would certainly not shock the conscience of the Guyanese nation," he contended, adding that a nation which cannot afford certain amenities cannot afford the death penalty. Referring to the delays alleged by the applicants, the AG said, from the time the stays were granted, the State had no alternative but to await the outcome of the motions. Everything seemed to have been brought to a standstill by "these hundreds of motions" they have put forward, Ramson said. "It is really getting beyond the tolerance level that is expected of the Judiciary in matters of this kind," he declared. The AG urged the judge to refuse the applications, saying the community would come to have a greater reliance on the judicial process. Ramson accused Yassin and Thomas of clutching at a straw by charging him with bias because he appeared for the State at the hearing of the motion and later sat on the Advisory Council for the Prerogative of Mercy. The AG maintained that the applicants had a fair hearing and their allegation to the contrary is without merit. Before the proceedings were adjourned to tomorrow, there were verbal clashes between Ramson and other attorney-at-law Mr Stephen Fraser, for the appealing duo, over a supplementary affidavit. At one stage, Justice Moore intervened, telling the two lawyers: "Let there be peace." Fraser had complained that, instead of receiving a single supplementary deposition from Dr Roger Luncheon (Secretary to Cabinet and Head of the Presidential Secretariat), he had received two copies relating to the report of the Advisory Council. Fraser claimed the clerk who served the second copy on him had indicated that there was an error in the earlier attestation. Fraser said the first document was a computer printout and there was evidence that something was wiped out on the second and a word replaced on a typewriter. The AG objected to the accusation, insisting that only one supplementary had been sworn to and filed on the morning of October 1 and it bore similar marks to those in the documentation before the Court. A heated argument involving the two lawyers ensued until Justice Moore pointed out that such conduct would not help him. "Let us get on with the case," the judge appealed. Among other things, Yassin and Thomas - who were sentenced to die by the gallows for the unlawful killing of Abdool Saleem Yassin, younger brother of the other Yassin - are seeking a declaration that their constitutional rights were contravened by the Government not accepting the recommendation of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) to release them or alternatively have their death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Ramson, opposing the grant, contends that the UNHRC said nothing about commuting the sentences as the convicts are now alleging. In his submission, what is being introduced by them is frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the Court procedure. (GEORGE BARCLAY)
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