Police Commissioner is attempting to pre-empt his accuser’s access to the courts

Dear Editor,
I write regarding an article in yesterday’s edition of your newspaper entitled: “Top Cop Rape Allegation…Green Moves to the High Court to Block Rape Charge”.  I was astounded when I read that the Commissioner of Police has moved to the High Court preemptively, to prevent the police from instituting charges against him on the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions.  I am confident that this must be the first such occurrence in the annals of legal practice in any jurisdiction, in any country, even the harshest of dictatorships.  As a legal practitioner, I have never heard of such an occurrence and even more stunning, is that the Commissioner’s request was granted by the Court.
The DPP is mandated to exercise her discretion in deciding whether or not to recommend charges against an accused; it is an exercise of discretion that is in all societies of which I am aware, immune from preemptive legal challenge.  If it were subject to preemptive legal challenge that would severely cripple the effective functioning of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions; it would in effect be “discretion subject to Court approval”.
The Commissioner in effect, is asking the Court to dictate when the State can or cannot institute charges against an accused.  That is a first in the annals of legal practice.  And under what section of the law was this deemed by the High Court to be an appropriate petition?  The accused has a right, after charges are instituted, to contest those charges on whatever grounds he or she deems appropriate.  The Commissioner is attempting to preempt the victim’s access to the courts, which is her constitutional right.  He is asking the people of Guyana to accept his version of events, unchallenged by the adversarial process.  Further, he has set out to damage the victim’s credibility in the court of public opinion. This is a travesty of justice and another one of those “only in Guyana occurrences”.
The people of Guyana and the Guyana Bar Association should stand up against this perverted attempt to corrupt the judicial process by the Commissioner of Police.  He is not above the law.
Terrence Duncan