THE media cannot comment on court cases while they are in progress. What the media can do is analyse what has been made public at the trial so far. And what has been made public does not make the AFC look good. The libel trial is the reference by Vice-President Jagdeo to Ms. Cathy Hughes as a low life.

So far, under cross examination Ms. Hughes as reported in the press has said things that paint an unimpressive canvas of the AFC when it was in government.
When asked about the “Russian presence” in Guyana during the 2020 election, Ms. Hughes responded that such a question should be put to Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan who was the Minister of National Security at the time.

Asked under cross examination by attorney Sanjeev Datadin about the “Russian presence” she said that she heard about four individuals that were in Guyana (during the time of the election). They were occupants in a prominent hotel, (under cross examination she should have named the hotel and Mr. Datadin should have pressed her for identification) had suspicious surveillance equipment and were in the country without the required documents.

When asked if the four persons were Russians and possessed a Russian passport, she said she cannot answer that question and Mr. Ramjattan should be the one to answer such a question. What Mrs. Hughes has said in court simply does not make sense in the context of the AFC press conference of March 5, 2020 which was presided over by Hughes and Ramjattan.

Here is what Hughes told the press conference: “Given that this was occurring on the early morning of the most important day in our history, the decision was that they had no grounds for these persons to be here and they were deported. The primary responsibility was to ensure that the right persons were alerted and the security agency dealing with the situation which they dealt with.” How she could make such a statement at her press conference yet could not say what she said at the trial?

Is Ms. Hughes telling the nation that she presided over a press briefing to inform the nation about attempted Russian interference in the election and she did not know if the persons were Russians with Russian passports? Her AFC colleague was the Minister of National Security. He presented the so-called Russian material at the press conference. It meant that the PNC and AFC leaders had to be briefed by state security on what exactly went on. State intelligence had to inform the minister and the minister would have told his AFC colleague what they found.

When two Ministers call the media to inform them of a security threat then the data has to be given to the ministers so they can properly inform the nation. That Ms. Hughes can admit that she did not know all the details about the so-called Russian presence calls into question what was her purpose at the March 2020 press conference.

Since Ms. Hughes admission at the libel trial, more political nonsense involving the fictional “Russian presence” is emerging and this time from Khemraj Ramjattan. Mr. Ramjattan has destroyed his credibility and that of the AFC by his latest description of the environment in which the Russians operated. That environment was in the lobby of the Marriot Hotel.

Ramjattan said the police heard Bharrat Jagdeo talking to four men in the Russian language and the topic was election related. The police knew what was being said and translated for him and based on that translation, he ordered the deportation of the four men. To think that the AFC could descend to such a level of ignorance and stupidity should cause this nation to simply ask this party to dissolve itself.

Here is the comicality in what Ramjattan related. 1- Why the four men would be talking to Jagdeo openly in view of the public about interference in an election? Not even a moron would do that. 2- How convenient that the police ranks that understand Russian were right there when Jagdeo was talking to the men. 3- Since the men cannot speak English, why were they sent by their Russian handlers to an English-speaking country? 4- Since Jagdeo was their main contact because of language facility, what would have happened if Mr. Jagdeo had fallen ill or was incapacitated? Who in the PPP leadership knew Russian to replace Jagdeo?

When you listen or read about this mambo jumbo that Ramjattan sprouted, you can’t help but feel sorry for Nigel Hughes. The untergang (downfall) of the AFC is complete. It was completed by Cathy Hughes and Ramjattan over the shadows of four Russian ghosts.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.