Trial adjourned after prosecutor, defence fail to appear

The trial into the 2003 Ministry of Foreign Affairs remigration scam is at a standstill after Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton was again forced to adjourn after the special prosecutor failed to appear in court and the defence counsel through another attorney requested another date.

Last week’s delay follows a number of other delays that have occurred over the years resulting in not much evidence being taken. The accused Perdessa Dundas who was slapped with 54 forgery and corruption transaction by an agent charges, for her alleged involvement in the scam, appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court for her case which was scheduled for 1pm.

More than an hour after the stipulated time had passed; neither her attorney Nigel Hughes nor special prosecutor Candace Raphael who is attached to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) chambers appeared in court. When the case was called, attorney-at-law Adrian Thompson told the court that he was holding for Hughes, who was out of jurisdiction and requested an adjournment.

The magistrate then said that the special prosecutor was also not in court and asked Police Prosecutor Desire Fowler to contact the DPP chambers to find out what was the position. Fowler subsequently told the court that she spoke with the DPP Shalimar ul-Hack, who requested a date so that another prosecutor could be sent to court. The magistrate then commented that “Every time this matter comes up there is a problem.”

The case was also adjourned when it was called on May 14 after the prosecutions’ witnesses failed to make an appearance. It was originally heard by former magistrate Bertlyn Reynolds who transferred it to Magistrate Adrian Thompson. When he resigned from the bench the matter was assigned to Magistrate Hamilton. It is not clear, how many witnesses have testified so far but this newspaper was given assurances that evidence was taken.

In January 2005, acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan released Dundas on her own recognizance after she was slapped with 42 counts of forgery. It is alleged that Dundas on various dates in 2003, with intent to defraud, forged Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minutes in favour of several persons, purporting to show that they were signed by the then Minister of Foreign Affairs Rudy Insanally.

In June 2005, 12 more charges were added: two counts of corrupt transaction by an agent and ten counts of forgery. She had appeared before Sullivan and was released on $10,000 bail. Prior to these two sets of charges, Dundas together with another Ministry of Foreign Affairs agent Simone Hinds were charged with corrupt transaction and forgery. They were also accused of taking huge sums of money from persons as payment for the preparation and processing of duty-free concession letters. However, Magistrate Maxwell Edwards acquitted them of the charges.

When the scam was detected many persons from both the foreign affairs and finance ministries fell under suspicion.