Been There, Done That
I am becoming increasingly worried about the things I’m hearing coming out of this impeachment tribunal against Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma.
 |
| Attorney General John Jeremie |
The thing that worries me the most right now is the refusal of the Attorney General John Jeremie to allow himself to be cross examined by the tribunal. The reason for his decision being that he doesn’t think that he needs too.
The tribunal invited John Jeremie to testify in order to clear up allegations that he conspired to get Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls out of a financial problem and that he also conspired with the Chief Magistrate to “wreck” the Basdeo Panday integrity trial.
“I have not seen any evidence, even remotely, supporting the imputations which counsel for the Chief Justice has made. Indeed, the evidence before the tribunal contradicts any such imputations”, said Mr. Jeremie.
He added that, since he perceived that there was no evidence of the alleged conspiracies to which he could reply, he was unable to discern any way in which he could usefully assist the tribunal.
Who’s in charge here? Is it the members of the tribunal or the AG? I don’t know that it’s up to John Jeremie to decide which evidence trumps which. Obviously the chairman of the tribunal feels that he will be useful to the tribunal and is disturbed by the AG’s unwillingness to testify.
I have never before seen a man, self-admittedly standing in the right, accused of so many unethical actions refuse to be cross examined, choosing instead to rely on what he perceives to be the strength of a previous testimony. My experience has been that people who are wrongfully accused are very vociferous in their indignation.
Obviously chairman of the tribunal Lord Mustill smells a rat. Said he, “We’re not naive by his attitude…we’re not completely own-headed over here…his absence and attitude will be taken into account.”
After all this Chief Justice matter is no joke. The integrity of the entire judiciary rests upon it. And a matter of this nature is unparalleled in our system of justice and accordingly the outcome will serve as a precedent to other countries for years to come.
Now I am not making an assumption of guilt or innocence of either the Chief Justice, the Chief Magistrate or whoever else. After all the only two people who know for sure what happened in that room that day are the Satnarine Sharma and Sherman McNicolls. But I don’t understand how a person genuinely interested in seeing this matter resolved and having the power to help it along throws up their hands and proclaims, “I good dey”.
3 Responses to “Been There, Done That”
By Jumbie on Sep 27, 2007 | Reply
Mani,
I have two things on good authority:
1) Pa-trick has secret files on corrupt people that allows him to bend them to his will, which explains John Jeremie and Sherman McNicolls unable to extricate themselves from the embarrassing and idiotic situation they’re presently in.
2) The action to get rid of Sat Sharma is a deliberate attempt to muzzle an imartial CJ because of the amount of corruption cases in which PNM personnel were to appear in court… an attempt to swing things in their favour.
By Toronto Trini on Sep 28, 2007 | Reply
Jumbie, Mani…Is’nt it also suspicious that Montiel and Fifi are both out of the country on VACATION while they were both told to be around in case they were colled upon to give statements.
By Trinobserver on Oct 3, 2007 | Reply
I think he wants to protect any further career he might have as a judge later on in his life–should the government lose (vs. Sharma).
Having said that, I believed Magistrate McNicolls the moment QC Timothy Cassel came out and said that Sharma spoke to him about the case over the Atlantic.
Both men cannot be lying in my opinion.
This Chief Justice has a weird sense of ethics to be blabbing about cases all over the place like that; and I am seriously suspicious of him.
(This is not the first such allegation. Remember Chandra Narayansingh? It is alleged he had a hand in that case against her husband too. That murder is so old–since primary school days–I wonder what is taking so long for it to be solved. Imagine my surprise to hear that some people were alleging in the East Indian community that the Doctor was being set-up because he was Indian. That came out of left field, and was so absurd as to strike me immediately with the impression that he was guilty, and pumping hands to get off. No..really…where on earth did that one come from?)
And how on earth did Sharma find out about the land deal to be holding it over McNicolls’s head?
That, sir, is a fish.