A separate trial is being sought for the police corporal jointly charged with Cadet Officer Franz Paul with attempting to pervert the course of justice in the April 30, Alex Griffith shooting.
Sandil Kissoon, attorney for Corporal Baichand Singh, yesterday urged the court to hear his client’s case separate from Paul’s. He said that the joint hearing will unconsciously influence Singh’s matter, which he described as independent and relating only to evidence in a station diary. He further suggested that the case be sent to the Chief Magistrate for re-assignment.
In addition to the joint charge he faces with Singh, Paul is charged with discharging a loaded firearm at the 15-year-old Griffith with intent to maim, disfigure or cause bodily harm, to which he pleaded not guilty.
He was also charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm and unlawful assault and pleaded not guilty to those charges as well.
At the time of the incident, Paul was said to have been personally investigating a robbery committed on his sister. Griffith, who the police believed was a witness to the robbery, was picked up for questioning.
Griffith had told Stabroek News that he had been at a friend’s home when a robbery occurred outside. Though he had been unable to see what had transpired, he said, two van-loads of policemen later went to his East La Penitence Squatting
