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Oct 20, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
It was more than just an ordinary day for me in the Court of Appeal yesterday. The people I met and the things I heard in the court have caused me to pen this piece. First there was the appeal by Juan Edghill against the High Court dismissal in 2012 of the contempt of court charge he brought against me. As they say in American lingo; “the man doesn’t play.” Juan Edghill doesn’t play.
Attorney Ashton Chase framed the writ in such a way that it was a writ for the committal to prison without alternatives. It meant that if the High Court had found me guilty, there could have been no reprimand or fine or community service. Edghill contended before Justice Insanally in 2012 that while there was a court matter involving the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) – of which he was head – and the Opposition Leader Robert Corbin, I had commented on the ERC.
Edghill’s writ was bizarre, because I did not write on that particular court case, but on the ERC. If there is a case before the court on parking between Jonestown company and Georgetown company , once I do not write on the specific contents of the court case, then it is one’s right to comment on Jonestown company. My lawyers were Khemraj Ramjattan and Nigel Hughes in the High Court. Mr. Hughes appeared yesterday for the appeal.
Here is an interesting dimension when the case was before the High Court. Four times it was called before Justice William Ramlal, and Edghill was never in court. The judge never ordered his appearance. This is just a mind-boggling, crazy country. A citizen filed a writ to commit me to prison and never saw it “fit and proper” to appear in person. It was when the trial started in front of Justice Insanally that Edghill was commanded to be present. Yesterday in the Court of Appeal, I was there and Mr. Hughes and the plaintiff’s lawyer, Ashton Chase. Edghill failed to show.
Mr. Chase told the three Appeal Court judges that he was not going ahead with the case. So I am a free man. This contempt of court writ needs to be highlighted because if today, in the year 2017, a minister (Edghill was Junior Finance Minister when he filed court papers) of the APNU+AFC formation was to do to a Guyana Times, or iNews or Mirror reporter what Edghill did to me, the cry of witch-hunt would reverberate throughout Guyana.
I wrote here about this case so Guyanese could know what this country went through with the PPP – the very PPP that are condemning the present administration for crimes a million times lesser than what they perpetrated on the Guyanese people.
All those jokers, clowns, fools and morons that fill newspaper pages daily with what the government is doing need to look at their pathetic images in their mirrors. The Junior Minister of Finance in the Ramotar regime tried to put me in jail. Yet Ramotar extols the glorious days of the PPP in power, as if Ramotar knows the difference between the two adjectives – glorious and inglorious.
It was an absorbing day in the courts, and I will end with three encounters.
Ralph Ramkarran and I had a friendly, pleasant exchange. He told me I looked lonely, to which I replied, “I have always been a loner,” to which he responded; “you look like you have the world on your shoulders.” We shook hands and I tapped him on the shoulder. I hope he never threatens me with libel writs any longer.
Secondly, a lawyer came up to me and gave me an interesting judgement by the Caribbean Court of Justice. The presiding judges were harsh on Guyanese magistrates for unreasonable, irrelevant sentencing of first offenders. I will form a column on the contents from that court decision and quote the relevant section.
Finally, a lawyer from a devout PPP family showed me, in the presence of attorney Patrice Henry, how long it takes for an appeal to be heard. Many of the cases he showed me were from 2002 and 2003.
This is a big man in the PPP. Patrice Henry laughed when I told him that his party was in government for twenty-three years, so why didn’t it attempt to get rid of the sick backlog. He said he wasn’t interested in that angle, only the angle of justice being denied because of the long delay. He suggested I do a column on the disease. I agreed and asked that I quote him. He said no, while laughing, and Patrice Henry was laughing too.
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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