MORE COPS WALK FREE ON EXTORTION CHARGES

CCNTV6

There’s news about another case involving five police officers facing  charges of misbehaviour in public office. They walked free on Wednesday after Master Sarah De Silva concluded that the State had failed to comply with the court's directives.  Mark Bassant has the story.

Transcript

00:00Just two days after seven police officers had charges of misbehavior in

00:04public office against them discharged because the state could not provide

00:08information on whether the police file had been submitted to the DPP's office

00:12for a state attorney to be appointed, five other police officers were charged

00:17with a similar offense were allowed to walk free again today as the state had

00:21not complied with directives of the court. The police officers were accused

00:25of accepting a $30,000 bribe to halt the prosecution of a businessman. During a

00:32sufficiency hearing, Master Cyril De Silva dismissed the charges against

00:36the officers Kenan Williams, Evans Mitchell, Latifa Lizama, Kevin Gomez and

00:41Jabari McIntyre. This came following repeated non-compliance by the

00:46prosecution regarding orders given by the court that had to be followed before

00:50the cases could proceed to trial. On a number of previous occasions, the master

00:55granted extensions of time for the prosecution to correct its procedural

01:00errors. However, when the matter came up for hearing earlier today, the directors

01:04were still not complied with. Attorney Renuka Rambajan, who appeared on behalf

01:08of the officers, had also previously called for the matters to be dismissed.

01:12Those requests were denied but today Master De Silva said because of the

01:17repeated non-compliance by the prosecution, she had to rule in favor of

01:21the defense. In doing so, the master also denied an application by the state to

01:26pursue conspiracy charges against the officers, stating that they can only be

01:31tried for what was stated on the indictment. It was only on Monday that

01:35seven other police officers were discharged on charges of misbehaving

01:38public office in similar fashion. None of the police officers from the

01:42Professional Standards Bureau who brought the charges against the seven

01:46officers showed up for the hearing on Monday. Those officers were charged in

01:502023 in connection with the alleged extortion of a businessman in the

01:54Sangu Gandhi area. Mark Besant, TV6 News.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended