FORMER Attorney General, Bernard DeSantos, 80, passed away Friday evening after complaining of feeling unwell.

President David Granger extended condolences to the family and relatives of DeSantos following his passing. Reports are that DeSantos was taken to the Balwant Singh Hospital on Friday night and passed away while undergoing treatment. DeSantos had an illustrious legal career.

In 1965, DeSantos completed law studies at the Inns Court School of Law of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple London, England. He returned to Guyana shortly after and joined the Luckhoo and Luckhoo law firm.

After working with the firm, he was appointed a magistrate in the Georgetown Magisterial District in 1968 but returned to private practice shortly after and opened his own law firm.
In 1991, he was appointed Senior Counsel and when the Opposition Peoples’ Progressive Party won the elections in 1992, he was appointed Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs. He served in that post until 1997.

Numerous tributes poured in on Saturday for the late lawyer.
Albert Baldeo of the Baldeo Foundation in Queens, New York, paid tribute to DeSantos.
“He was one of the most knowledgeable lawyers in the criminal law and was an adroit cross-examiner. He would confuse and wear the witnesses down and get them to contradict the evidence from sheer frustration and tiredness when the case was going against him,” he said.

He said that to see Bernard DeSantos at his best, exuding the guile, class and style, and morbid fear in the hearts of the witnesses, (and sometimes juries), made one stop, “and admire a legal entertainer, who could destroy any case”.

He said DeSantos was a showman, scholar and advocate, all rolled into one.
“He knew the criminal law, would explode into frequent objections, and would never back down from a fight,” he added.

“They don’t make them like Bernard anymore,” he added.
These sentiments were shared by the Guyana Bar Association.

In a statement, the Bar said DeSantos was an expert at cross-examination and could often be seen in the courtroom skilfully and patiently breaking down the evidence of witnesses opposing his clients.

“Mr. De Santos was also a gifted raconteur and was frequently at the centre of a group of lawyers on the corridor of the Court as he regaled them with stories of cases and judges from days gone by. He was kind and patient with younger lawyers and he mentored many junior lawyers who were new to the intricacies of the profession. Mr. De Santos’s passing leaves a vacuum in the profession and he will be sorely missed. The Bar Council extends its deepest condolences to the family of Mr. Bernard De Santos,” the statement concluded.