Dear Editor
I HAVE been following developments in the courts, with regard to criminal cases involving some former ministers and officials of the former PPP/C government.
Against the background of some recent acquittals. there has to be concern with the prosecutorial capacity of the state to effect convictions against those accused of crimes against the state.

This state of affairs is not due to a lack of evidence, since the audit findings have been supported by in-depth police investigations, which resulted in charges being laid. It would seem that there is a problem with the state prosecutors not being au fait with the particular sections of the law which ought to support the intended charges. This was clearly the case when a former PPP/C minister of government and former senior personnel of the same ministry, were acquitted because of being charged under the incorrect law.

One cannot fault the court’s decision, since it is a laid-down dictum that the case must suit the law; however, one is entitled to query whether such a defect had not been observed from the inception, in the matter of the state versus the minister and her former staff and the necessary advice given. Why was this very important matter that cost the state millions of dollars allowed to proceed through a trial, only to be advised by the presiding officer, at the end, that the charges were bad in law?

This result is not what an anticipating public would have expected, given its reasonable expectations that the accused should be convicted, because of the reportedly strong case that had been laid against the offenders.

Editor, one accepts the fact that our judicial system is being challenged by a particular category of offences which it is engaging for the first time. It explains why there have been so many seminars and training engagements convened for the entire judiciary, so as to bring about a better cognisance on the part of judicial officers, as to what is required.

Yet, it has to be recognised that in such critical legal matters that involve former high officials, that there should be a calibre of legal prosecutors whose knowledge and expertise of the law should be evident, bringing it to bear on proceedings. This has to be a requirement, lest the guilty be allowed to escape the condign arm of justice
The state cannot afford any more of these “lapses”; for these only continue to feed the immoral minds of a category of citizen who have been shouting “witch hunting.” They become further energised by such acquittals, believing in the process that such criminalities should be rewarded by non-punishment. As a government that has commenced to re-fashion a society on good morals and respect for the law, this must not be allowed to be the understanding of what this new dispensation represents.

Editor, I do believe in the justness of the state taking condign action against those who steal its resources in any form. But its efforts must be supported by a more alert, robust, and aggressive prosecutorial system.

Regards
Dillon Goring