– on Dookie court ruling

ATTORNEY-General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams is awaiting a report from the legal team that represented his chamber in the case brought against the state by former Head of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit, Motie Dookie.

A few days ago, High Court judge Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln overturned the decision in favour of Dookie.

Last May, Minister of Citizenship Winston Felix, who at the time was performing the duties of Minister of Public Security, instructed then Commissioner of Police Paul Williams to have Deputy Superintendent of Police Motie Dookie, proceed on leave in the public’s interest after he was found with large amounts of smuggled whisky last December.

At the time the decision was taken, both Commissioner of Police (ag) David Ramnarine and substantive Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan were on travel duties together in Arizona. But Dookie challenged the decision of the minister and his superior in the Guyana Police Force on the basis that it was “unconstitutional” and “whimsical.”

Weighing in on the issue on Monday, the attorney general said Justice Corbin-Lincoln’s decision raises an important issue.

“What is the state to do when there is no commission whether, public, teaching or police; in this case [it] is police,” he reasoned.

“So, a senior rank who comes under the jurisdiction of the Police Service Commission commits some egregious act; is the state and the government to be without remedy in treating with this person, because there is no Police Service Commission?”

The attorney general is maintaining that the state invoked the doctrine of necessity when it sent Dookie on leave in the absence of a Police Service Commission (PSC).

A PSC has since been reconstituted under the chairmanship of retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, Paul Slowe.

Minister Williams said when the report on the case is received, his chamber will make a decision on the way forward.