– when Nandlall law-books trial resumes Jan. 25

COME next year, former Attorney-General Anil Nandlall will lead his defence in relation to the alleged larceny of over $2M worth of law books from the Ministry of Legal Affairs.

The former minister is on trial before Senior Magistrate Fabayo Azore at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court for the alleged theft, between May 8 – 29, 2015, of some $2M worth of LexisNexis law reports on Commonwealth matters. The reports at reference, some 14 in all, are the property of the Ministry of Legal Affairs, the charge contends.

Although Nandlall was expected to lead his defence on Thursday, Magistrate Azore has adjourned the matter to January 25, 2019.

In November, a prima facie case was made out against Nandlall, whereby Magistrate Azore ruled that Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) prosecutor, Patrice Henry has so far proved his case, based upon the evidence.

His lawyer, Glen Hanoman told the court on Thursday that his client will give a sworn testimony when the matter resumes in January, while former President, Donald Ramotar is expected to be called as a defence witness in support of Nandlall’s case.

Over the years since the matter was made public, Nandlall has repeatedly insisted that the law books were bought for him while he was AG by the State, with the approval of the then president, who was Ramotar.

Nandlall has said time and again that the law books are in his possession, and that he has no intention of returning them to the State.

He’d subsequently secured an order in the High Court, barring the police from seizing the books.

Nandlall had stated that the books were acquired during his term in office as Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs; that he’d begun subscribing to LexisNexis, the British firm which publishes such reports, sometime in 2003; and that the arrangement was that the reports were to be shipped to him along with an invoice.

He’d also made the point that long before his appointment as attorney-general and minister of legal affairs, he’d requested that as a condition of his service, the State should stand this expense and this was agreed.

The items were taken with him when his party demitted office in May 2015. This, he said, was communicated to the relevant authorities.