Attorney Sanjeev Datadin has been appointed special prosecutor in the advocating of a terrorist act charge against Oliver Hinckson who was once again remanded to prison after Datadin was granted an adjournment to get acquainted with the files and the witnesses in the matter.
Hinckson was charged on March 11 with uttering seditious statements and advocating a terrorist act.
Datadin told the court yesterday morning that he only received the case file last Wednesday and given the intervening holiday he was not given the opportunity to speak with witnesses. He requested an adjournment to do such.
Magistrate Gordon Gilhuys said at this point that he had received no documentation confirming Datadin’s appointment as the new prosecutor.
Vic Puran one of the attorneys on Hinckson’s defence team then addressed the magistrate saying that he is “fed up with the calculated delays by the prosecution in this matter.”
He said that at this stage there seemed to be no prosecutor and as such the case should be dismissed. Gilhuys said that he would make no ruling until the relevant document indicating Datadin as prosecutor was filed and the prosecutor had a chance to present his case.
Datadin indicated that a letter from the Director of Public Prosecutions should have been sent to the Magistrate. Assuring that he had not received any such letter Gilhuys granted a twenty-minute adjournment for the prosecutor to obtain the said letter. Upon his return Datadin reiterated that he was not able to move forward with the case at present.
After requesting that his client be able to sit through the proceedings Puran requested a response to the applications he had made in the previous hearing. He said that “at the end of the day more important than the liberty of the accused is the dignity of the court.” Puran said that the DPP and her agents have shown no respect to the court since he had made applications which were to be responded to at yesterday’s hearing and decency required that the prosecution return with a reply. He further said that what “tastes bad” is that the court will grant a further adjournment.
Puran said that to prove that justice is “flowing in the court,” the magistrate should grant bail to Hinckson, since he has been incarcerated for so long with nothing substantial happening.
Gilhuys replied that the defence should be grateful that he was setting the dates in close succession given his heavy workload.
The matter was adjourned to May 9.
Meanwhile no moves have been made as regard the sedition charge against Hinckson although his attorneys had indicated that they would return to the chief magistrate for the matter to be re-assigned to another court since the last prosecutor had requested it be put down indefinitely.
