FORMER Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, has threatened to institute private criminal charges against anyone who attempts to execute a search warrant on his premises with the intention of retrieving 14 Commonwealth Law Reports (books) he allegedly stole from the state.

Nandall in a letter to Police Commissioner, Seelall Persaud, said the charges would be instituted “against anyone who attempts to execute or executes, or aid and abet the execution of any such illegal, unlawful and contemptuous Search Warrant.”

Nandlall, a practicing attorney is currently before the courts for the larceny of the law books he said was given to him by former President Donald Ramotar during his tenure in office. The charge alleged that Nandlall fraudulently converted 14 Commonwealth Law Reports valued at $2.3M to his own use, while serving at Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs. He is currently on self-bail.

Nandlall secured a Conservatory Order preventing officers of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) from searching his properties. On July 3, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) in a statement to the media said the 14 Commonwealth Law reports in Nandlall’s possession were not the subject of the Conservatory Order issued by Acting Chief Justice, Roxanne George- Wiltshire.

However, Nandlall described the police statement as “ingenious and perverse contention”. In response to an article published by the Guyana Times Newspaper and headlined “Did SOCU hoodwink Chief Magistrate?”, the police said that on Tuesday, June 27, officers of SOCU were to conduct simultaneous searches of residences controlled by Nandall in an ongoing effort to recover the 14 Law Reports of the Commonwealth which were allegedly stolen prior to him demitting Office in 2015.

“These searches were abandoned after Mr. Nandalall was apprised of the pending searches,” the statement noted. Additionally, the Police said that the Acting Chief Justice had already granted the Conservatory Order restraining the SOCU officers from executing a warrant to search and seize the Law Reports.

“The Force wishes to advise the Public that the publications being sought by the Guyana Police Force are fourteen (14) ‘Law Reports of the Commonwealth’ which were not the subject of the Conservatory Order issued by the Acting Chief Justice and which is the subject of criminal charges against the former Attorney General of Guyana.”

But Nandall in his missive to the Police Commissioner questioned whether the Police Force was trying to do damage control or “an exhibition of manifest incompetence or it is an expression of puerile vendetta, or it is all combined.”

He argues that the Acting Chief Justice’s order states “This court orders that an interim Conservatory Order be and is hereby granted preventing and/or restraining officers and/or agents of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) and/or the Guyana Police Force of the State of Guyana from seizing and/or detaining fifteen (15) Commonwealth Law Reports for the years 2012 to May, 2015, in the possession of the Applicant.”

The former Attorney General stressed that as the “owner of these books” and the applicant for the Order, the 14 law books referred to by the police and the 15 law books referred to in the order granted by Justice George are one and the same save and except for the numerical difference.

“In the circumstances, I am to inform you that any attempt to execute the aforesaid Search Warrant or any such similar Search Warrant in respect of the subject Law Reports of the Commonwealth will be a contumacious and aggravated violation of the Order of the Honourable Acting Chief Justice and contempt of court proceedings, constitutional actions and appropriate private criminal charges will be instituted against anyone who attempts to execute or executes, or aid and abet the execution of any such illegal, unlawful and contemptuous Search Warrant.”

Nandall also described the efforts by the government to retrieve the law books as “wastage of public monies, scarce resources, time and energies by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) in persecuting me, in respect of a contrived charge of larceny in relation to my own property, when the real criminals are at large wreaking havoc against the citizens of this country.”