| Crime situation in Guyana… Several human rights organisations assisting crime by their silence — AG Nandlall |  |  |  |
| Written by Telesha Ramnarine |
| Monday, 16 September 2013 21:29 |
SEVERAL organisations in Guyana that profess to be championing human rights causes are in effect supporting criminals.
 Attorney General Anil Nandlall “So we view that deafening silence as apparent tacit support for criminals,” Nandlall remarked. He was speaking in respect of organisations such as the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA), Amnesty International (AI), Transparency International (TI), Red Thread, Help and Shelter, the Guyana Bar Association (GBA), the Guyana Women Lawyers Association (GWLA), the Berbice Bar Association (BBA), and the Alliance For Change itself. Nandlall spoke about the time, some years ago, when Mr. Nigel Hughes was accused of removing a surveillance tape from a gas station at Buxton after a crime had been committed. That tape, the minister said, may have contained vital footage that would have assisted police in identifying who were the perpetrators of the crime; but before the police arrived on the crime scene, the prominent lawyer had reportedly removed the surveillance tape. Furthermore, Nandlall conntended, a blind eye cannot be turned to the recently concluded murder trial in relation to the Lusignan massacre, at conclusion of which the jury foreman confessed to having been a former client of Hughes’s, although that information was not made public prior to the verdict being handed down. “Significantly, because of the high-profile nature of this case, the judge embarked upon an exceptional course in this matter after the jury was empanelled, and held an inquiry where each juror was asked specifically whether they had any relationship with relatives of the deceased, or any of the lawyers who were involved. “This was done in the presence of all the lawyers,” Nandlall related, “and not an utterance was made by the lawyer or the foreman that there existed a prior lawyer/client relationship. Such information only became public when the Clerk of the Chief Justice and a policeman attached to the Chief Justice’s Office made the disclosure. “The foreman was summoned by the judge, and he admitted publicly that he had such relationship with Hughes. He was subsequently banned. “Significantly, when one reviews the case that Hughes represented this foreman in relation to, it is a case that lasted six long years. In this case, I have reviewed the court documents, and only one lawyer appeared for six years. The very lawyer conducted the trial of this matter,” Nandlall explained. “This trial involved putting the foreman of the jury in the witness box, and so the lawyer would have had to sit with this client for hours, if not days, to brief him and prepare him to give evidence,” Nandlall detailed. Nandlall said he provided all this information to show that Hughes’s response that he could not recall that the foreman was his client was both “incredulous and incredible.” “These are the matters that civil society must comment upon,” the minister urged. He noted that, only yesterday, Hughes was voicing his deep concern over the crime situation in Guyana. “Someone should ask him about his role in the unfolding set of events,” Minister Nandlall said. |