Anand denies ‘leaking’ info to businessmen (with CNC3 video)

AG denies information leak

Attorney General Anand Ramlogan says the proclamation of Section 34 of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act 2011 was made public on August 30 and he could not have “leaked” information about it to businessmen Ish Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson.

Ramlogan was responding to a story published in the October 14 issue of the Sunday Guardian, under the headline “Govt minister tipped off Ish.” The AG, in an email to the T&T Guardian, said he was told the insinuation was made by Independent Senator Corinne Baptiste-McKnight.

He said she expressed grave concern about the possibility of the businessmen being able to gain prior knowledge about the proclamation and filed applications in court before the legal notice was published. Section 34 gave citizens the right to file for the dismissal of matters in court if they were not completed ten years after the offence was committed. Section 34 was later repealed in an emergency sitting of the Parliament in September.

Ramlogan said he saw the senator’s contribution via a YouTube link of a CNC3 report. He said Baptiste-McKnight “got her facts wrong and hence posed a dangerous rhetorical question pregnant with conspirational implications.” Ramlogan said he was “compelled to clear the air in the face of the clear insinuation that I could be among those who might have ‘leaked’ this secret information to these businessmen.”

He said: “Legal Notice No 348, which dealt with the proclamation of section 34 was in fact published on August 30, 2012” and not on September 10 as was “asserted” by Baptiste-McKnight. Ramlogan said the applications by Galbaransingh and Ferguson were filed on September 10.

The AG insisted: “It is patently false and untrue to suggest that they were able to filter their applications before the legal notice was published.” He said the legal notice was available to anyone once published. “The proclamation was therefore public knowledge since August 30,” Ramlogan added.