Dear Editor,
According to your Thursday news article, captioned ‘First witness cross-examined in Hinckson terrorist act PI,’ one Trevor Reid of the CID’s Serious Crimes Investigation Unit was the first witness to be cross-examined, but as per your lead and second paragraphs, there was nothing reported on what he revealed. Was this aspect of the entire proceedings a closed-door hearing?
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
Editor’s note
The media are not allowed to report on anything said under oath in a preliminary inquiry. A PI is not a trial; it is a pre-trial hearing to establish whether a prima facie case has been made out against the accused which warrants sending them to trial.
…… wid all the brite ,, hyperboles,, hypotheses,, assumptions,, fabrication and,, the general “twisting” of the facts ,, by merlin and his totally misguided motley group ,, did he not know that a PI is not a trial,, and what he’s asking for does not allow for reports to be made for the public domain ???????????????????
Though a preliminary inquiry is not a trial, this particular inquiry is not about an act that was committed, resulting in the colection of hard evidence to be tendered in court. The inquiry is about what Hinckson said and what the government interpreted as amounting to sedition and terrorism.
Has it ever occured to you that the government never explicitly stated what precisely Hinckson said that led tyo the charges? The same thing happened to Gordon Moseley; the President never explicitly stated what Moseley said that amounted to disrespct and warranted a ban.
OJ Simpson was arrested and charged with robbery under arms, but at a pre-trial hearing or preliminary inquiry to determine whether he should stand trial the media were able to report on what transpired in that hearing. We now know a lot more than was originally reported. Guyana obviously has a flawed law regarding PIs.
1. The law should be changed here to allow for the media to cover preliminary investigations in Guyana. Where is the harm in reporting what is being said under oath in PIs when there is reason to believe people may be lying in an effort to help the State give legs to a case that clearly has no legs? Justice in Guyana is not like justice is countries that reverence justice.
2. I still cannot understand how Hinckson can be charged with terrorism and sedition because he used the mayor’s microphone to offer himself as a mediator, but the mayor is not seen as a facilitator! Not that I think the mayor should be charged, too, but are the charges really based on what OH said in the presence of the mayor, or in his conversation with PPP MP and lawyer Anil Nandlall, or in his interrogation at Eve Leary after he went int for questioning?
REMEMBER THOSE TAPES FROM BUXTON. THAT SHOULD ANSWER A FEW QUESTIONS.
The British old boy; the British. Are we ever going to evolve? I don’t know. But I will tell you, if more North American educated Guyanese take the reign of Government Change will come. Change is coming.LOL