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It’s four years since the police preferred a charge of incitement against Opposition Leader Lennox Linton and the case has made little to no progress at the court as four Magistrates have rescued themselves from presiding over the matter.<\/p>\n
The charge stems from an incident which dates back to February 7, 2017, when the parliamentary opposition, United Workers Party (UWP) held a meeting on Kennedy Avenue in Roseau calling for the resignation of Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit.<\/p>\n
Following the meeting, several businesses in the city were vandalized and more than a year later, October 2018, charges were brought against opposition members including Opposition Leader, Lennox Linton,\u00a0 former Prime Minister Eddison James and Dr. Thomson Fontaine. Former Deputy political leader of the UWP, Joshua Francis, along with Nicholas George and former UWP Member of Parliament now Speaker of the House of Assembly, Joseph Isaac, were charged with obstruction of justice.<\/p>\n
While the matter against James, Francis, George and Isaac has been adjourned sine die (without a set date for resumption), Linton and Dr. Fontaine are left to answer the charges which are still before the court.<\/p>\n
When the opposition Leader appeared in court yesterday, August 8, 2022, Magistrate Michael Laudat who, on the last occasion recused himself from the matter, said he was rescinding his decision.<\/p>\n
According to Laudat, there are at present four magistrates assigned to criminal matters in Roseau three of whom have already recused themselves from the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I were to recuse myself, this will not be proper to the administration of justice. It would be wrong of me to follow suit, so I will do the matter,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
In response, defense attorney Gildon Richards urged the magistrate to remain bonded to his earlier decision, the \u201cperfect decision,\u201d he deemed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour Honor you had most appropriately recused yourself. In supporting your decision, I’m saying that I have always had difficulty with judicial officers who have been appointed on contract acting in criminal cases,\u201d Richards argued.<\/p>\n
He alluded to the fact that Magistrate Asquith Riviere who first started the matter is no longer a sitting magistrate and as such, insisted the matter must recommence before another magistrate.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Riviere, who commenced this matter, was also appointed on a short term contract like you are. This matter was well on its way and the minister who appoints you and appointed Mr. Riviere did not renew his contract so he was not permitted to continue to be a judicial officer and it is on this basis that we are saying we fear the same thing will happen to you,\u201d the attorney reasoned.<\/p>\n
Richards added, \u201c And if you have the same fear that we do, then you may not be as fair as you ought to be in this matter. So in the interest of justice we are humbly asking you to maintain your decision of recusing yourself from this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before handing down his decision, Magistrate Laudat informed the attorney that Privy Council states that any application by the defense or the prosecution requesting the recusal of a magistrate ought not be done in open court but in closed chambers or by way of writing to the magistrate.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Magistrate Laudat adjourned the matter to December 12, 2022, to court number 1 before another magistrate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s four years since the police preferred a charge of incitement against Opposition Leader Lennox Linton and the case has made little to no progress at the court as four Magistrates have rescued themselves from presiding over the matter. The…","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":265580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,235,9,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-court-law","category-homepage-carousel","category-news","category-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n