Grave Concerns
Director of Public Prosecution, Roger Gaspard (File Photo)
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Sept 11, CMC – The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Roger Gaspard, said he had expressed his “grave concerns” about the Administration of Justice (Indictable Offences) Act 2011 as government moves to the Parliament later on Wednesday to repeal a controversial clause that allowed at least two prominent financiers of the ruling United National Congress (UNC) to petition the Supreme Court to dismiss a multiple of corruption charges against them.
Gaspard said he has suggested to Attorney General Anand Ramlogan that the clause should be repealed “as a matter of extreme urgency…with retroactive effect”,
Gaspard said that he had also written to Ramlogan that ‘any remedial legislative action taken…must expressly indicate that it is in of retrospective effect and should override sections 4 and 5 of the Constitution since it involves the removal of existing rights of action”.
In an eight page statement, Gaspard said further while he had been “initially consulted” by the government on the legislation in March 2011, he could not have commented on the controversial clause “because they were not in the draft bill kindly sent to me by the Minister of Justice” Herbert Volney.
(Details in Politics section)
CMC/2012
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