Ramson contends Yassin, Thomas at wrong appellate forum
HEARING of the appeal by condemned murderers Abdool Saleem Yassin and Noel Thomas against a judge's dismissal of their application for a continued stay of execution began yesterday with Attorney General (AG) Charles Ramson, SC, claiming they had approached the wrong forum. The judge who refused their request had finally disposed of their action and, as such, the appellants should have petitioned the Guyana Court of Appeal, Mr Ramson submitted to Chief Justice Desiree Bernard and Justices Deonarine Bissessar and B. S. Roy. The AG argued that, although the proceedings commenced as interlocutory, having regard to the contents of the ruling at the end, the edict became a final one and any appeal against it ought to be before the Court of Appeal. Ramson said the character of that kind of decisiona, whether right or wrong, is not changed because of any perception that it was made in excess of jurisdiction as contended by Mr Stephen Fraser, who is appearing for the duo on `death row'. The AG said sitting in chambers does not denude a judge of High Court powers. Earlier, Fraser charged that the challenged ruling, on the ground that the litigation was an abuse of the Court process, was incorrect. He recalled that Yassin and Thomas had moved by way of writ for the interlocutory and said, instead of looking at the legal arguments to ascertain whether there was a question to be resolved by trial, the judge took it upon himself to conduct a preliminary inquiry, a procedure unknown in civil law. Fraser asserted that the judge in chambers had made clear, from the outset, his intention not to determine any matter which was previously ventilated or ought to have been. That stance was also something not known in civil cases, Fraser maintained. Chief Justice Bernard interrupted to ask if counsel had consented to argue as they would have in consideration of the writ. Fraser said there was no doubt they proceeded to make submissions but did so on the direction of the judge in chambers. Fraser said his team of lawyers never agreed to proceed fully and the record could not reflect that such permission was given. He said Ramson had conceded that in at least one instance Yassin and Thomas merited a declaration and, consequently, the judge should have allowed the interlocutory to continue through finality in front of a trial judge, even if he thought the appellants were likely to fail before him. Yassin and Thomas were convicted of murdering the younger brother of the former, Abdool Kaleem Yassin, in 1987 and the last death warrants were read to them in September. Since then, they began to pursue this continuing quest to escape the gallows. The AG is also representing the Director of Prisons, who is the second respondent in this case.
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