THE Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will hold sittings in Guyana this Wednesday and Thursday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) where it will hear five matters, two of which are from Guyana.
It was last month that the regional court’s Registrar and Chief Marshall, Gabrielle Figaro-Jones, had noted that the CCJ in its itinerant capacity will sit in Guyana from 21– 22 June. Earlier last week, Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag), Yonette Cummings issued a legal notice to notify that the sittings will be held at the ACCC in the west wing on the second floor.
For the Guyanese cases, the court will hear the cases of Micah Williams v The Director of Public Prosecutions, and Sasedai Kumarie Persaud v Sherene Mongroo, Zenobia Rosenbery, Indranie Mulchand.
The first case involves trade unionist, Micah Williams who was convicted of and is currently serving two life sentences for raping an eight-year-old girl. Williams was tried and found guilty in 2018 in the Sexual Offences Court, in the Georgetown High Court, for two counts of sexual activity with a child. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after serving 20 years in jail.
In April 2022, Williams challenged his conviction and sentence in the Court of Appeal. In December, 2022, the court threw out the appeal. Williams has now moved to the CCJ as a last recourse.
The second case involves the contesting of the last Will and Testament of Yusuf Mongroo, the late owner of the Horseshoe Racing Service.
Also scheduled to be heard are two cases from Barbados: Apsara Restaurants (Barbados) Limited v Guardian General Insurance and James Ricardo Alexander Fields. The other case is from Dominca and involves Successors Limited v the State of Jamaica.
Established in February 2001 by the Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice, the CCJ is the Caribbean regional judicial tribunal.
The CCJ is intended to be a hybrid institution: a municipal court of last resort and an international court vested with original, compulsory and exclusive jurisdiction in respect of the interpretation and application of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
The CCJ is headed by its President Justice Adrian Saunders, of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and also includes Justice Jacob Wit, of The Netherlands, Winston Anderson, of Jamaican, Justice Maureen Rajnauth-Lee, and Justice Peter Jamadar of Trinidad and Tobago, Justice Denys Barrow, of Belize, and Justice Andrew Burgess, a native of Barbados.