Politicians must be held accountable for their criminal behavior and prosecuted
DEAR EDITOR,
Kaieteur News – I have read carefully what was printed in a news article that appeared in the issue of Kaieteur News, Friday, January 22, 2021, “Magistrate yet to determine the trial method for electoral fraud cases”, on page 11, which depicted 4 pictures alongside that heading, those of 3 of the 7 Accused, Clairmont Mingo, Volda Lawrence and Keith Lowenfield, and one of the Special Counsel appointed by the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Attorney-at-Law -great Glenn Hanoman. I appreciate your thorough approach to news reporting on those fraud cases.
Editor, I welcome the exposure these cases are now receiving in the media in January 2021, and as I come from a Guyanese diaspora, I pay attention to these cases overseas the news as they are developing.
However, I am left wondering why the learned Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions, like those Chambers, did not find it appropriate to at least collectively accuse Karen Cummings of a conspiracy offense to commit Fraud, in which I am a firm believer that in the case of those facing the music there will be evidence that she violates Guyana criminal laws. There is no one above the law.
As a lawyer and one who has also prosecuted cases, whenever a file is taken over for private prosecution, it is the assessor’s duty to decide whether others who have broken the law jointly or otherwise can be charged.
Therefore, I urge the prosecution team leader to reassess the evidence and decide whether to join that former government official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the indictment. Politicians must be held accountable for their criminal behavior and prosecuted. Short of that justice sector policy, the general population will be aware that whenever a person goes into government jobs, a new precedent of such behavior will be set that someone can behave in the same way as Karen Cummings, that is, deny Guyana criminal laws, conspiracy to commit fraud, but because of a high official position, a Minister cannot be deposed with your alleged aides. Let’s not forget that this person acted rather unjustly when abusing many Diplomats and Foreign Observers at the setting, so set up by GECOM, and I feel strongly that she should be tried for her crime ( s) alleged, as GECOM is not her domain. , and her behavior was in my humble opinion, criminal. The action of this individual, in my opinion, appears to have been done when conspiring with others (some of whom were indeed charged by the State) to commit fraud, and if such appearance is indeed fact, and the truth of lying there in the actions of those charged with their alleged acts done on those days in March 2020 is understandable. It is an alleged offense committed on Foreign Diplomats and other Dignitaries, including and not to forget Former British High Commissioner Stephen Hiscock and the late Sir Arthur Owen the former Prime Minister of Barbados, as well as the Guyanese people.
In my humble opinion, such a omission in the Criminal Indictment could lead to the prosecution’s other weakness (s), if they do not appear at the trials, because if I were the Defense Attorney, I would get an answer as to why Karen Cummings was also not charged when the evidence seems to show that she got on a convenient, fixed date in March, 2020, at exactly the point when the Nation was awaiting the results, committed election fraud by stop that process, and deliberately reject the qualifications of the previously invited Caricom Observer Team, thereby promoting the alleged fraud, allegedly perpetrated by her alleged aides, Volda Lawrence, Clairmont Mingo, Keith Lowenfield, Enrique Livan Sheffern February and Roxanne Myers. As a lawyer with a political science major from undergraduate degree years, I firmly believe that no one should be above the law in a direct democracy where the rule of law is intact, and that should include a person who acts while he or she is the Foreign Minister in such a democracy.
Yours faithfully,
“M. Shabeer Zafar ”
Barrister, Solicitor, Notary
(Ontario)