– Attorney-General responds to Stabroek News article

ATTORNEY-General Basil Williams has refuted claims in a Stabroek News article dated July 10, 2019, which stated that he withdrew an appeal from the Appellate Court in the case involving Dipcon Engineering and Finance Minister, Winston Jordan.

The attorney-general, on Wednesday, said Stabroek News was crucially misguided by the comments of attorney of the Trinidadian firm, Timothy Jonas.

What was filed was a notice of motion, requesting leave to appeal the matter at the Court of Appeal, he clarified.

It was noted that the motion which was being sought, is an appeal on the interlocutory matter, which is the Full Court’s refusal of the stay of Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry’s order in the case.

He explained, however, that the motion which he sought was not necessary anymore since President David Granger has granted a respite in the case, which allows the State and Minister Jordan to exhaust the legal processes.
Therefore, to challenge the Full Court’s refusal of the stay of judgment would have been a waste of time, Williams said.

“Jonas ought to have known that, because he was served with what was filed in the Court of Appeal and he ought to have known that there was no appeal before the Court of Appeal, because leave is being sought and what was being sought was an interlocutory matter and not the substantive appeal which is still at the Full Court,” the attorney-general said.

He added: “The respite enables us to withdraw so that the Full Court can hear the substantive appeal…. It forces the court to deal with the substantive appeal. So I don’t have to keep being back and forth with any request for leave and waste time there. The respite is our stay, so now they have to hear the substantive appeal…. What we need them to do is hear the substantive appeal that the court had no jurisdiction to entertain the application because the court cannot make a coercive order against a minister. Now if you can’t do it as a minister, you can’t do it against him through the back door, personally and privately. So, us withdrawing our motion will force the court to look at the appeal on substantive matter,” Williams clarified.