James Anthony Hyles, called ‘Sally’

Apart from being the Alliance for Change (AFC) Chairman, Nigel Hughes is also a lawyer with a history of criminal association. Hughes has very close ties to an alleged drug kingpin said to be wanted in the U.S on drug trafficking charges. A source told us that the AFC chairman apart from being the god-father of the drug dealer's child is also a director on a company used to launder illicit funds. What caught our eyes and ears recently though is that Hughes is in the habit of providing pro-bono legal representation to criminals.

The source who pointed this out said this is being done in order to bolster the AFC chairman's standing among certain sections of the populace. Hughes was instrumental in having the DPP withdraw murder charges against one of the individuals accused or murdering policeman Romain Cleto.                      

Hughes also recently filed a motion to challenge the committal of Lusignan massacre murder accused James Anthony Hyles, called ‘Sally’, of Buxton. Hyles along with Mark Royden Williams, called ‘Smallie’ of Uitvlugt and a 14-year-old boy of Strathspey Squatting Area, East Coast Demerara (ECD) were charged with murdering eleven persons when members of the Fineman led Buxton/Agricola gang descended on the village of Lusignan. The gang, dubbed 'Freedom Fighters' by persons aligned to the political opposition committed the act after the disappearance of a female linked to its leader Rondell 'Fineman' Rawlings.

We sought the opinion of an observer in the political arena who said that this pattern of ties to criminal elements by Hughes is in line with his party's actions in parliament where they joined the PNC's APNU in voting against several pieces of crime fighting legislation. The observer said Ramjattan was thrown out of the PPP after his failure to heed repeated warnings to desist from representing criminals as an attorney-at-law.