A Guyana Defence Force officer who was twice before a military court to answer a charge , for which he was initially freed, has again been acquitted. Captain Ronald Hope, was last Tuesday at Camp Ayanganna set free in the second Court Martial after Judge Advocate Justice Oslen Small upheld  submissions made by Hope’s lead defence lawyer, Gregory Gaskin, and declared the summary of evidence proceedings a nullity on the ground of procedural irregularities.

Hope, who was accused of  unlawful uplifting of a service pistol from the arms-stores at Camp Stephenson, Timehri, on August 27, 2009, was subsequently discharged bringing the trial to an end.

He faced a lone charge of `conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline contrary to Section 75 of the Defence act, Chapter 15:01 of the Laws of Guyana.

Captain Hope’s  first appearance before the army court was in October 2009, with Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Lee as the President and Justice Winston Moore serving as the Judge Advocate.

That trial was aborted in November 2009, when Judge Moore advised that the trial be discontinued and declared a nullity, due to procedural irregularities in the Summary of Evidence (SOE) proceedings. SOE proceedings are similar that of a Preliminary Inquiry (PI) that is conducted in a Magistrate’s Court.

This was based on submissions by Hope then defence attorneys, Leslie Sobers, Gregory Gaskin and Trenton Lake. The State’s case was presented by attorney Melissa Stewart.

Justice Moore had also advised the GDF that they had two options at hand, that is they could have re-instituted the charge against the officer, but have it done properly, or accept Hope’s request that he be SOS ( Struck off Strength ).

The army opted for the first option and a second court martial on the same charge began in December 2009,  with  Lt. Colonel  K. Persaud presiding as the President and retired Justice Oslen Small  sitting as the Judge Advocate.

The State was again represented by attorney Melissa Stewart while Hope’s defence team comprised of Gaskin and attorneys Trenton Lake and Chandrawattie Persaud.

During the cross-examination of the first prosecution witness in early January 2010, it was revealed that yet again there were breaches of procedure with respect to the Summary of Evidence (SOE).

The defence successfully applied for a voir dire, which lasted four months,  to explore whether evidence from four of the State’s six witnesses was admissible.

At the end of that trial within a trial, Judge Advocate Small upheld the submissions of the defence and declared the second Court martial a nullity due to grave irregularities and defects in the SOE proceedings.

The GDF officer’s defence team twice had to approach the High Court  to fight a case for their client release. Hope had remained in detention ever since he was arrested in 28 August, 2009. He was placed under close arrest and on November 2, that restriction was relaxed to one of open arrest, but the officer was still not allowed to leave the base.

On November 11, the High Court ruled that Hope’s open arrest ( detention) was an illegal act and the Army allowed him conditional freedom, that he could leave Base Camp Ayanganna but had to report by 10:00h on a daily basis.

That freedom was however short-lived as he was re-arrested by the GDF four days later.

In January Hope’s lawyers again had to revert to the High Court to secure his conditional freedom ; and on January 14, Acting Chief Justice Ian Chang  made an order for the immediate release from detention of Hope.

The order was served directly on Army Chief of Staff, Commodore Gary Best the following day  but the GDF only took action on January 18.

Defence attorneys Gaskin and  Lake, commenting on the failure of the second military trial,  have both opined that the Army had once again shot itself in the foot, and have reiterated that that any future attempt to re-lay charges against Hope would again be met by strenuous and lengthy pre-trial challenges of several sorts.

Gaskin further questioned the reason behind the GDF high command’s relentless pursuit of Captain Hope, by way of court martial, for an offence that has routinely been tried summarily by unit Commanding Officers (COs).

Gaskin views this as “especially obnoxious”, since it has recently been revealed that an incident involving the loss of a GDF pistol with full magazine, by an officer of similar rank, while socialising at a popular city night spot, is being handled at the department level by the GDF.