Former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj is advising Legal Affairs Minister Prakash Ramadhar to steer clear of intervening in the witness tampering allegations levelled against Attorney General Anand Ramlogan. Maharaj, responding to reports that Ramadhar had summoned Police Complaints Authority Director David West to a meeting on the issue, said on Tuesday that the minister was well advised not to intervene.
It is alleged that Ramlogan had contacted West to withdraw his witness statement in his (Ramlogan’s) defamation matter against Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley in exchange for his appointment as PCA head. Ramlogan has denied the allegation. Maharaj said on the face of the facts of the matter it should be a police investigation and people, including Ramadhar, should be careful how they treat with the allegation since “it may appear that they are obstructing a police investigation.”
Maharaj, addressing a media conference at his office at Irving Street, San Fernando, also called on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to take the appropriate steps to have Ramlogan and House Speaker Wade Mark removed from their respective offices. He said the allegations levelled against Ramlogan bring the office of AG into disrepute and he must be removed.
“Enough is enough. How much more can the people of T&T take? The Prime Minister is the leader of the Government and it would not have got to this state if she didn’t take the appropriate action before. She has to take the appropriate action in having the AG relieved of his office,” Maharaj said. He added that there could not be a full investigation if Ramlogan remained in office.
“It is totally unacceptable to have the office of the Attorney General operated under that kind of allegation of disrepute,” Maharaj added. He called on acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams to give the appropriate directions to the public on the matter and if an investigation has been launched. He also advised that Williams issue a clear warning that he would take swift action against anyone who obstructed a police investigation.
Maharaj said should the police engage in an investigation it should not take more than a week. “The public should not allow this to go cold, to be a cold case. Not because of the people involved but the circumstances,” he said.
Mark’s fatal error
Maharaj also weighed in on the controversies surrounding Mark’s shutting down of a motion of censure raised by Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner against Finance Minister Larry Howai last Friday. He said Mark was aware that the subjudice rule did not apply to civil matters and therefore Warner’s motion could have been debated. He said professional judges were not vulnerable or influenced by any publication which they saw or hear about in a proceeding before them.
Maharaj said Mark, by his action, restricted an MP from his duty to make the Government account. “What the Speaker did is not a simple error. It was a grave injustice to the Parliament, the people of Chaguanas West and the people of T&T,” he said. He said confidence in Mark had been eroded and he must step down or be removed. If he was not removed, Maharaj said, a motion of no confidence can be brought against him in Parliament.