Dear Editor,
Never before in the legal history of Guyana has an Attorney General levelled publicly such a blast of terror and fear upon any Head of the Judiciary or his own legal officer.
The fall-out from this scurrilous blast has radiated its tremulous fear through the spinal cord of the entire body of the Judiciary in Guyana and elsewhere. This act of irresponsibility was unleashed by the Attorney General, Mr Basil Williams to the Editor of the Guyana Chronicle on the 19th January 2017, vide copy of article on pages 1 and 3. Its Editor did not make any prudent check or investigation or make any enquiries of the Registrar of the Appeal Court to verify the facts as he is duty bound to do, before he plunged himself into the abyss of the dark and dastardly deeds, of contempt, vilification and degradation of an independent institution, that is, the Judiciary as guaranteed by the Constitution of Guyana.
There are in court, recorded documents to show the pure stream of justice was flowing uninterruptedly concerning Mr Jagdeo’s case until the Editor of the Guyana Chronicle and the Attorney General of Guyana polluted same. Their prejudiced perception is that the Chancellor, together with applicant Bharrat Jagdeo, his Attorney at Law, Mr M Bacchus and the Deputy Solicitor General Prithima Kissoon, all caused the Attorney General and the Editor to fall in the dark mud of partiality that Jagdeo must receive the benefit from the court unjustly.
They paid no heed to how the bench was constituted and they became blinded and dethroned of all reason and forgetting their functions as journalist and the Leader of the Bar, with implicit false faith in the contemptuous utterances of Basil Williams, the Attorney General of Guyana then gleefully, gladly penned the poisonous piece of journalistic venom accusing the court of partiality and conspiracy to dethrone justice.
The Attorney General who has such legal wisdom and foresight ought to have seen the unholy conspiracy of the Bench and Bar and should have appeared in person, as Leader of the Bar, filed his Affidavit in Answer, argued his case as a legal luminary and Eminent Counsel and crushed the Applicant’s case to smithereens. Let him tell you and the nation why he did not, after he recognized and detected this wicked conspiracy of which he and the press have verbally assaulted and damnified the judiciary into contempt, disrepute and impartiality, maligned the members of the Bench by defamatory remarks who it was said were unworthy to hold such office.
The Editor has let down those who repose confidence in him to be a just, fair-minded and objective journalist who has now sinned against the predecessors who held the high, noble and splendid office of Attorney General, an office of learning and honour. Attorneys General such as Dr Fenton Ramsahoye, Sir Shridath Ramphal, Mr Fred Wills, Dr Mohamed Shahabuddin and Mr Keith Massiah have been betrayed by the current Attorney General, Mr Basil Williams, SC through libel, slander and contempt. It will take a new generation of lawyers to restore the pristine glory of these great chambers.
Yours respectfully
Jailall Kissoon
Attorney-at-law
