ATTORNEY-General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams has warned Opposition MPs in the National Assembly of a new approach being taken in the justice system by the David Granger Administration, where there can be no separate laws and rulings for the rich and the poor.

Touting what he called a “fresh approach” in the justice system, Williams yesterday said, “If one is prepared to do the crime, he must be prepared to do the time!”

Williams’s position resonated well with his colleagues on the Government side of the House, who could be heard banging desks in approval, with one Government parliamentarian shouting: “Lock them up!”

“Our vision is that of a justice system that is characterised by fairness,” Williams said in his budget address yesterday in the National Assembly. “Fairness for the Guyanese people…that they can embrace and feel safe and secure in the knowledge that they live in a country of law and order,” the AG continued.

“In this fresh approach, there will not be one law for the rich and one law for the poor,” Williams charged. “Justice in Guyana must be blind and colourless. The law will take its course.”

Williams said Government will not countenance arbitrary arrests of persons, and “no longer must mothers send their sons out on errands only to locate them days later in a police station lockups.”

Similarly, he expressed the new Administration’s zero tolerance of unlawful detentions and excessive delays in criminal and civil court trials.

Still on the “fresh approach,” Williams said Government will review paper committals. Those, he said, were intended to speed up preliminary inquiries in magistrates’ courts, but are rarely resorted to by magistrates.

“Criminals must not walk free because of incapacity in the administration of justice,” Williams continued, adding that Government will “implement measures that will enhance capacity in the trial process.”

Calls were only recently made for a Commission of Inquiry to be established into the killing of young Guyanese men from 2000-2008, a time which corresponded with the tenure of former President Bharrat Jagdeo, now Opposition Leader.

“The mothers and families of these victims want answers and they want closure,” Williams stated, adding that the drafting division of his chambers is considering legislation which would widen the class of persons who can qualify as coroners “to conduct inquests into these unnatural deaths.”

Williams said those inquests shall begin shortly.

On the matter of crime-scene investigations, Williams plugged the need for investigators who have been trained to collect, collate and preserve evidence, while preventing contamination of crime scenes. He said, too, that DNA testing, as well as fingerprinting and ballistics, must be developed. Williams said the new approach also includes the increased capacity of state and police prosecutors, as well as magistrates, to present and handle evidence effectively.

Moving to an area of crime that is not usually considered in Guyana, Williams spoke to the Government’s willingness to tackle cybercrimes.

“The Attorney General’s Chambers and Ministry of Legal Affairs will spearhead the creation of cybercrime legislation, and will seek to harmonise it with that of other member states of CARICOM,” he revealed.

To this end, Williams alluded to the participation of state workers who attended a cybercrime workshop in Miami, Florida in the United States of America. This is to be followed by stakeholder consultations.

Williams himself had been invited to attend a regional cybercrime workshop for judges and judicial officers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, later this month. He will be represented by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Shalimar Ali-Hack, and a judge from the Court of Appeal. The AG will not be attending because of the priority of the budget debate.