In­dar­jit Seu­raj

Fraud ac­cused busi­ness­men Steve Fer­gu­son and Ish­war Gal­barans­ingh, who are want­ed in the Unit­ed States on a to­tal of 95 fraud charges, are ex­pect­ed to know to­mor­row whether an ap­pli­ca­tion for bail would be grant­ed by the Court of Ap­peal. Late last Fri­day, the pan­el, com­pris­ing Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie, Paula Mae Weekes and Al­ice Yorke-Soo Hon, served no­tice of to­mor­row's judg­ment. The ap­pli­ca­tion be­fore the ap­pel­late pan­el fol­lows a de­ci­sion by High Court judge An­dre Mon De­sir on De­cem­ber 22, 2010 to de­ny them bail. Mon De­sir had ruled there was no cir­cum­stances caus­ing a sig­nif­i­cant enough change for an ap­pli­ca­tion for bail to be con­sid­ered.

On Jan­u­ary 17, how­ev­er, British Queen's Coun­sel An­drew Mitchell had con­tend­ed that the re­fer­ral of the case for ju­di­cial re­view be­fore a High Court judge was suf­fi­cient change to en­ter­tain a bail ap­pli­ca­tion.

Mitchell, who rep­re­sent­ed Gal­barans­ingh, al­so ar­gued that pri­ma­cy of the con­sti­tu­tion and the ap­pli­cant's right to lib­er­ty were en­sured by the grant­i­ng of bail. Fyard Ho­sein, SC, Sasha Bridge­mo­hans­ingh and Rishi Dass made sub­mis­sions on be­half of Fer­gu­son. Nyree Al­fon­so in­structs Mitchell and Ho­sein for the pris­on­ers.

Fer­gu­son, for­mer Mar­itime Gen­er­al CEO, and Gal­barans­ingh, chair­man of North­ern Con­struc­tion Ltd Group of Com­pa­nies, are want­ed in the US to an­swer 95 fraud charges aris­ing from the $1.6 bil­lion Pi­ar­co Air­port ter­mi­nal project. Avory Sinanan, SC, leads Kelvin Ramkissoon, Suni­ta Har­rikissoon and Karel Dou­glas for the state.