Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

For­mer Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA) di­rec­tor Roger Best has plead­ed not guilty to be­ing in pos­ses­sion of more am­mu­ni­tion than he was per­mit­ted un­der his Firearm User’s Li­cence (FUL).

Best, of Pinewood Dri­ve, Ari­ma, was charged via court sum­mons late last month and en­tered the plea as he made his first court ap­pear­ance at the Ari­ma Mag­is­trates’ Court be­fore Mag­is­trate Avion Gill yes­ter­day.

Dur­ing the hear­ing, Mag­is­trate Gill gave di­rec­tions for the ev­i­dence against Best to be dis­closed to his lawyers, led by Ar­den Williams. She ad­journed the case to March 17 next year, for a State at­tor­ney from the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) to be as­signed to pros­e­cute Best.

A date for the tri­al of the case is ex­pect­ed to be set dur­ing the next hear­ing.

Ear­li­er this year, Best was ar­rest­ed along­side for­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher in re­la­tion to an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to two bolt-ac­tion sniper ri­fles that were pro­cured for the SSA. They were both re­leased af­ter DPP Roger Gas­pard, SC, con­clud­ed that there was in­suf­fi­cient ev­i­dence to charge them.

Best was sub­se­quent­ly charged for be­ing in pos­ses­sion of 198 rounds of 9mm am­mu­ni­tion when his FUL on­ly per­mit­ted him to car­ry 24 rounds.

In March last year, Best was dis­missed by the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil (NSC), led by then-prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, who al­leged that SSA staff un­der Best’s lead­er­ship were in­volved in an al­leged plot to top­ple the gov­ern­ment.

Last year, Best, pas­tor Ian Brown, Sgt Sher­win Wal­dron, a for­mer tac­ti­cal op­er­a­tions of­fi­cer, and Suzan Portell-Grif­fith, a for­mer se­cu­ri­ty su­per­vi­sor with the SSA, were ar­rest­ed in re­la­tion to a probe over the pos­ses­sion and trans­fer of weapons and am­mu­ni­tion. Best was not even­tu­al­ly charged along­side the trio.

Brown was ac­cused of mis­be­hav­ing in pub­lic of­fice by pos­sess­ing four pro­hib­it­ed firearms and 360 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion. His co-ac­cused were ac­cused of il­le­gal­ly trans­fer­ring the weapons.

In Feb­ru­ary, the charges were dis­missed due to the fail­ure of pros­e­cu­tors to com­ply with court pro­ce­dures and dead­lines.

Best has pur­sued a law­suit over his dis­missal, which is ex­pect­ed to be de­cid­ed by High Court Judge Na­dia Kan­ga­loo lat­er this year.