JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

South lawyers want contempt charges

by

20111111

The As­sem­bly of South­ern Lawyers is call­ing on the Law As­so­ci­a­tion to con­sid­er ini­ti­at­ing con­tempt pro­ceed­ings against Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley. This fol­lows the Dei­go Mar­tin East MP's state­ments on the rul­ing in the Ish­war Gal­barans­ingh and Steve Fer­gu­son ex­tra­di­tion mat­ter. Pres­i­dent of the as­sem­bly, at­tor­ney Frank Seep­er­sad, told the T&T Guardian an apol­o­gy from Row­ley was not enough. "An apol­o­gy will not ad­e­quate­ly rem­e­dy the sit­u­a­tion as the harm al­ready has been done and the seeds of doubt al­ready have been plant­ed in the minds of mem­bers of the pub­lic," Seep­er­sad con­tend­ed.

On Tues­day, in re­sponse to ques­tions on the de­ci­sion by High Court judge Ron­nie Boodoos­ingh to quash the Unit­ed States ex­tra­di­tion or­der for the busi­ness­men, Row­ley said: "I wouldn't term it a de­feat for the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al... if there is any de­feat it would be for jus­tice in Trinidad and To­ba­go." The Op­po­si­tion Leader al­so said it was the AG who "fa­cil­i­tat­ed the whole process. so hav­ing got the ex­pect­ed re­sult, I wouldn't call it a de­feat." Seep­er­sad said Row­ley's state­ments "amount to con­tempt and the Law As­so­ci­a­tion, just as it did in the Chokolin­go mat­ter, can move the court to hear con­tempt pro­ceed­ings in this re­gard."

He said the ex­ec­u­tive of the as­sem­bly would be writ­ing to the Law As­so­ci­a­tion "with a view of con­sid­er­ing the com­mence­ment of con­tempt pro­ceed­ings." Seep­er­sad said pub­lic fig­ures must be cau­tious in their state­ments. He added: "It is al­ways ex­treme­ly im­por­tant that per­sons who hold pub­lic of­fice think care­ful­ly and act re­spon­si­bly when mak­ing state­ments. To do oth­er­wise is un­ac­cept­able in a civilised de­mo­c­ra­t­ic so­ci­ety." In a me­dia re­lease on Row­ley's state­ment, Seep­er­sad wrote: "The im­pu­ta­tion of wrong-do­ing on the part of the judge ap­pears to be a ma­li­cious, cal­cu­lat­ed, un­war­rant­ed at­tack on the ho­n­ourable judge and by ex­ten­sion the Ju­di­cia­ry and the ad­min­is­tra­tion of jus­tice."

He said the Ju­di­cia­ry was "per­haps the on­ly arm of the State that is un­taint­ed by al­le­ga­tions of im­pro­pri­ety and/or cor­rupt prac­tices and it is there­fore un­ac­cept­able that a politi­cian will dare to bring the Ju­di­cia­ry in­to dis­re­pute." Seep­er­sad added: "As lawyers we are com­mit­ted to up­hold the Con­sti­tu­tion and the law and this egre­gious at­tack on our ju­di­cial sys­tem, and by ex­ten­sion on our democ­ra­cy, will not be tol­er­at­ed."


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored