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Appeal Court reserves date for ruling in DPP’s appeal in Bisram’s trial
DPP Shalimar Ali-Hack, S.C.
Kaieteur News – The arguments in the appeal case filed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack, SC, to have the murder charges reinstituted on discharged Guyanese/US businessman and philanthropist, Marcus Bisram, concluded yesterday, with the Appeal Court reserving it ruling in the case. The Court is expected to send legal notices to parties involved on a date in which it will rule.
Bisram, who was extradited from the United States to face charges for the October 2016 murder of Berbice carpenter, Faiyaz Narinedatt, was released by Magistrate Renita Singh after a preliminary inquiry, where she ruled that there was insufficient evidence to send him to the High Court for trial.
US-based businessman, Marcus Bisram.
The DPP had however invoked her powers under Section 72 (1) and (2) (ii) (b) of the Criminal Law Offences Act, and directed the Magistrate to reopen the inquiry with a view of committing Bisram to the High Court for trial. Her directions were complied with, but Bisram challenged the DPP’s right to instruct the Magistrate in the High Court.
In a subsequent decision, Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall, quashed the DPP’s orders as unlawful. Justice Morris-Ramlall also ordered that the DPP should be prohibited from instituting the charges against Bisram again. It is this order that the DPP has challenged in the Appeal Court. Arguments in the appeal concluded yesterday with the DPP and attorney for Bisram, Arudranauth Gossai, giving their final submissions to the court.
Ali-Hack, SC, has so far, maintained that she is legally empowered to order a Magistrate to reinstitute charges on Bisram, under Section 72 of the Criminal Law Offences Act.
Given this right to direct the Magistrate to reopen the Preliminary Inquiry (PI) and commit the accused for trial, the DPP said that her directive for Bisram to be committed to stand trial was proper, reasonable and lawfully made. She stressed, among other things, that the Magistrate erred in finding there was not enough evidence to commit Bisram for trial. “This was the function of the jury not the Magistrate,” she said. “Section 72 (2) (1) and (2) (a) and (b) empowers the DPP to direct the Magistrate…,” she emphasized.
She also stated, among other things that with a jury properly directed, there can be a conviction for the murder of Narinedatt, who was killed between October 31, 2016 and November 1, 2016.
The DPP had previously contended too that there were several errors in the judgment of Justice Morris-Ramlall, who ruled in June that Bisram was unlawfully committed to stand trial in the High Court for the capital offence of murder.
In response, Gossai contended that the DPP stepped outside her realm in her order to the Magistrate.
“It offends the separation of powers’ doctrine,” the lawyer said, adding that Article 122 A of the Constitution “created an independent judiciary, and expressly provides that all courts and all persons presiding over the courts shall exercise their functions independently of the control and direction of any other person or authority; and shall be free and independent from political, executive and any form of direction and control.”
Gossai said that in his view, the provisions of Section 72 (2) (ii) (a) seek to encroach on the judicial determination of a Magistrate. Such an encroachment, he pointed out, would offend the separation of powers doctrine.
“The DPP cannot seek to determine the outcome of the preliminary inquiry. If the Court were to hold that the DPP had such powers, it would, respectfully, mean that the DPP (the Executive) would be reaching into the affairs of the court,” the lawyer contends.
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