This is after he spoke publicly about a plea deal in the polar beer scam case last month, fuelling speculation as to who has agreed to cooperate with the state in return for a lighter penalty, as well as triggering concerns as to how the plea agreement was reached.
“Ask the police and the DPP…” Jagdeo said in response to a question posed by this newspaper during a press conference at the Office of the President.
But after his disclosure both agencies had been evasive on the issue, particularly in the case of the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The President had declared then that “one of the offenders” in the Customs fraud involving Fidelity Investments would turn state’s witness.
“ …as horrible as they are, as criminal as they are, sometimes you have to make a deal with them to get prosecutions… and this is in the public domain so it is not infringing on the court’s jurisdiction,” the President disclosed during the opening of the 24th Conference of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP) in May.
He was quoted by the Office of the President in a subsequent release as saying that the plea bargaining legislation is a tool that the police and the DPP really need to have, to garner greater success in prosecutions, saying he is pleased that, “we have passed that law and we may get more prosecutions now, not just on this matter, but in other matters.”
The Plea Bargaining Act was unanimously passed in the National Assembly last October, and Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee had stated that the function of the court would not be usurped at any stage of the process.
Following Jagdeo’s disclosure attorney-at-law Raphael Trotman said that he found the President’s statements on a plea deal in the polar beer scam “very disturbing” because of how it was handled, Trotman, who is also leader of the AFC, called for an impartial and open approach to the legislation if it is to be implemented fairly, and accepted as an important aspect of the judicial system.
Trotman had said too that the consent of the court is critical to the plea agreement being accepted and questioned how any deal could have been struck outside the defined court procedure as set out in the recently enacted law.
