SOCU withdraws fraud charges against President Ali

Aug 15, 2020 News

By Renay Sambach

President, Dr. Irfaan Ali

The 19 fraud charges that were leveled against President Dr. Irfaan Ali, alleging the illicit sale of state lands, were yesterday morning withdrawn by the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU).
When the matter was called in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, SOCU’s Prosecutor, Patrice Henry informed Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan, that the unit no longer wishes to continue with the charges. When contacted, Henry told this newspaper that as a result of SOCU directing him that they no longer wished to proceed, the charges were withdrawn as opposed to them being dismissed for lack of merit. He added that SOCU is cognizant that by Ali taking the oath of the President, he automatically receives immunity and it is not in SOCU’s interest to go against Article 182 (2) of the Constitution.
Article 182 (2) stipulates, “Whilst any person holds or performs the functions of the office of President no criminal proceedings shall be instituted or continued against him or her in respect of anything done or omitted to be done by him or her in his or her private capacity, and no civil proceedings shall be instituted or continued in respect of which relief is claimed against him or her or anything done or omitted to be done in his or her private capacity.”
Henry noted that SOCU has no intention of continuing with the matter even after Ali comes out of office.
In 2018, after the charges were instituted against Ali, his lawyers moved to the High Court against the Commissioner of Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Chief Magistrate, and Detective Corporal Munilall Persaud to seek a pronouncement that there was no legal or common law duty to obtain a valuation prior to the sale of property. The High Court had ruled against the application but Ali later moved to the Court of Appeal.
The ruling for the matter in the Court of Appeal was scheduled for yesterday afternoon. However, earlier this month Ali’s lawyer, Devindra Kissoon had made an application in the Magistrates’ Courts for the charges to be dismissed. His application was never granted so he later wrote a letter to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack, S.C, and contacted S.O.C.U.
In an invited comment with this newspaper Kissoon shared, that as a result of the date for the ruling of the matter in the COA; he renewed his application in a letter to the DPP in which he outlined Article 182(2) of the Constitution and the Code of Prosecutors.
Kissoon’s letter argued that the two sections of the law mandated that the charges must be withdrawn since (i) they have no lawful basis, (ii) proceeding with the charges would be unconstitutional, (iii) President Ali is immune from prosecution, (iv) the charges constitute an abuse of the criminal process, and (v) the public interest does not warrants the prosecution of the President.
Kissoon noted that as a result of the renewal of his application SOCU agreed and instructed Henry to withdraw the charges in the Magistrates’ Courts which led to the matter being discontinued in the Court of Appeal.
On his first court appearance, Ali was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts where the 19 fraud charges were read to him. Ali was accused of defrauding the Government of over $174 M, by selling several plots of State lands, below the market value, to former ministers of the then PPP/C government. He was not required to plead to the indictable charges which had stated that between the period 2011 and 2015, he conspired with persons unknown to defraud the Government when he acted recklessly by selling19 plots of State Lands at Plantation Sparendaam and Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara. The lands which allegedly sold for a mere $39.8M, were valued at $212.4M, according to SOCU.

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