A focus on the minutiae in the Buddy’s fuel smuggling case and not on the delivery of justice was its undoing, according to an informed source who used to be close to the prosecution, and who is urging that Government appeal such cases all the way to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
The charges against the defendants in the $6M Buddy’s fuel bust were dismissed at the Providence Magistrate’s Court on Friday, ending more than two years of deliberations.
The magistrate in the case Priya Sewnarine-Beharry stated that the case had been replete with errors.
On trial were Deonarine Singh of 104 Collingswood, Nandy Park, EBD; Wazir Mohamed of 28 North Road, Bourda; Clement Huntley of 39 Wisroc, Linden; Fitzgerald London of 494 Canvas City, Linden; Sanicharran Ramgolam of Number 64 Village, Corentyne; Ceezann Vandelwin of the Pomeroon River; Errol Prince of 43 Garnett Street, Kitty; Joseph Allen of Diamond Squatting Area, EBD; Ramsahai Basdeo of Lot 101 Cornelia New Housing Scheme and Osbern Richards of Supenaam, Essequibo Coast.
They had been jointly charged with possession of fuel at Buddy’s farm at Coverden without the relevant marking in the right proportion and possession of illegal fuel in a quantity exceeding 2,000 litres without a licence.
The trial of the ten accused and the trial of businessman Omprakash `Buddy’ Shivraj, on whose property the alleged illegal fuel was found, were merged. Shivraj was charged with possession of illegal fuel and storage of illegal fuel and had been placed on just under $1.1M bail.
“Are we looking for justice, or are we looking at the niceties of the law,” the source enquired, adding that people that were caught red handed with illegal fuel were being let go in a frivolous manner.
According to the source, the Magistrate in the case made an issue that Anil Nandlall wasn’t properly appointed to prosecute on the GEA’s behalf. The source indicated that the Magistrate in the case said that Nandlall wasn’t an officer of the GEA. “If that is what she said, she has misdirected herself,” the person told this newspaper.
But the law gives the Head of the GEA the power to prosecute without applying to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the person told this newspaper.
The source said that the then Head of the GEA Joseph O’Lall under the laws of the GEA, appointed Nandlall to prosecute. The person said that the issue of the propriety of Nandlall prosecuting never came up at any of the other fuel smuggling cases. “The Magistrate should have asked where was Nandlall’s authority to prosecute, and [she would have been told what that authority was],” said the source.
The person pointed out that O’Lall had placed his life on the line to nab the fuel smugglers. “Is procedure more important than the substance of the case?” the source asked.
According to the source, a recent appeal was made in a similar case. “Will the GEA still go ahead with that appeal in light of the developments?” the source asked. The person does not expect that any other fuel smuggling case in the courts will be won by the prosecution. “The legal officers will always find an excuse,” the source said, making reference to one case in which the prosecution was deemed to have failed to establish that diesel was indeed a petroleum product.
“I urge the Government to do all it can to appeal these cases all the way to the Caribbean Court of Justice,” the source said.
When this newspaper called Head of the GEA Mahinder Sharma for a comment on the lack of success in successive prosecutions, he referred all queries to Prime Minister Sam Hinds. Hinds yesterday through his secretary asked that the questions be forwarded to him for a response. Nandlall told Stabroek News that he would have to study the magistrate’s ruling before deciding whether to comment on the case.
The source also pointed out what he described as an impropriety in the fact that Shivraj was in front of the court and at the same time he was receiving a loan from the Government to construct a hotel. “We welcome the hotel, but what happened to the procedure? The State had this man in the courts and was lending him money at the same time,” the source said.
Last month, O’Lall had told this newspaper that fuel smuggling has been on the increase since his departure from the agency. He also indicated that legal fuel sales had declined, possibly indicative of increased smuggling.
O’Lall attributed this to a weakened and compromised GEA, whose abilities to curb the illegal trade in fuel had been undermined with his departure. He had said that the illegal trade is rampant in the Essequibo River and along the Essequibo Coast and that the temptation is great given the huge profit margins to be gained because of the ‘giveaway’ prices for gas in Venezuela.
