For­mer en­er­gy min­is­ter Fin­bar Gan­gar will go on tri­al for two crim­i­nal charges next Feb­ru­ary. Af­ter the con­clu­sion of a se­ries of le­gal chal­lenges against the charges, Mag­is­trate Melville Daniel yes­ter­day set the tri­al date.

Gan­gar, the for­mer en­er­gy min­is­ter un­der the Bas­deo Pan­day ad­min­is­tra­tion, is charged with two counts of fail­ing to de­clare his fi­nan­cial as­sets, con­trary to the In­tegri­ty in Pub­lic Life Act 1987.He chal­lenged the charges at the Court of Ap­peal and even­tu­al­ly lost at the Ju­di­cial Com­mit­tee of the Lon­don Privy Coun­cil. The coun­cil had ruled in 2008 that he should face tri­al be­fore a mag­is­trate.

Yes­ter­day, he was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­neys Ra­jiv Per­sad and Jagdeo Singh when he ap­peared be­fore Daniel in the Port-of-Spain First Court. The tri­al would be­gin on Feb­ru­ary 24, 2011. Dana See­ta­hal, SC, is pros­e­cut­ing. On June 4, 2004, two charges were laid against Gan­gar, al­leg­ing he made false de­c­la­ra­tions as to his fi­nan­cial af­fairs in 1998 and 1999, con­trary to sec­tion 27(1)(b) of the 1987 In­tegri­ty in Pub­lic Life Act.