Prime Minister’s son up for retrial following dismissal of Magistrate
Geeta Chandan-Edmond
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Prime Minister Samuel Hinds’ son will be up for a retrial after Geeta Chandan-Edmond, the Magistrate that found him guilty of an offence in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on February 6 was fired by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) on Friday, February 20.
The Magistrate was slated to sentence Hinds Jr on Friday. According to a release from the Attorney representing the Magistrate, Nigel Hughes, “the immediate effect of the termination of the Magistrate’s service is that the verdict against Mr. Hinds (Samuel Hinds Jnr.) is vacated and a new trial before a different Magistrate will now follow.
Hughes in the statement to the media made it clear that his client intends to legally challenge the decision, even if that means going to the Caribbean Court of Justice.
iNews understands that Magistrate Chandan-Edmond was hauled before the JSC, chaired by Chancellor Carl Singh on Wednesday, February 18, where it was claimed that a Minutes Book went missing while she was on maternity leave. Several other matters were also raised which date back from as far as 2013.
But Hughes in the statement said that every single allegation leveled against the Magistrate was answered and refuted with the production of documentary evidence including a letter from the Doctor who examined Chandan Edmond.
Sam Hinds Jr.
“There was no allegation of misconduct leveled against Ms Chandan Edmond. There was no hearing or any invitation to any hearing on the allegations for the entire year of 2014,” the statement noted.
iNews understands that on Friday, February 2015 when the case of the Police Vs Samuel Hinds Junior was called, the probation officer was unable to produce a Probation Report thereby forcing an adjournment.
“At 2.15 pm on the same day, the Magistrate was informed ‘the Commission therefore considers it both necessary and appropriate, that it is in the public interest that you be forthwith discharged from further magisterial duty.”
Hinds Jr. was accused of assaulting his sister-in-law, Tenza Lane.