Full Court accepts jurisdiction in Yassin, Thomas appeal
THE Full Court yesterday overruled an objection by the Attorney General, Senior Counsel Charles Ramson and held that it has jurisdiction in the appeal by condemned murderers Abdool Saleem Yassin and Noel Thomas. As such, Chief Justice Desiree Bernard and Justices Deonarine Bissessar and B. S. Roy will continue hearing in the matter Monday. Delivering the decision, the Chief Justice, presiding, said where there is a doubt as to whether the challenged decision emanated from an interlocutory or final order, the tribunal has the right to use its discretion, which was exercised. Attorney-at-law Mr Stephen Fraser, opening his arguments on the substantial issues, urged the Court to find that the appellants did not have a fair trial by the judge in chambers. The lawyer said that judge, instead of ordering a continuation of the interlocutary edict, as he should have done with the writ of summons, went on, without taking evidence, to declare the application by the two men frivolous and vexatious. Fraser submitted that the only way to test a writ of summons was by oral testimony, tested through cross-examination. He maintained the judge had no document before him upon which he could have come to the conclusion that the appellants' case was bound to fail. Therefore, Fraser said, it was mandatory that there should be pleadings on which such a determination could be made. Yassin and Thomas are challenging the judgement in which their request, also for a continued stay of execution, was denied. Ramson had contended that the convicts were at the wrong forum while Fraser insisted the refusal was in excess of that judge's powers. The appealing duo twice had the death penalty imposed on them for the 1987 murder of Yassin's younger brother, Abdool Kaleem Yassin, over their father's legacy. Since the two on `death row' at the Camp Street, Georgetown jail, have been pursuing a quest to escape the gallows and, until the current litigation ends, the Director of Prisons is prevented from executing them.
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