Derek Achong

State pros­e­cu­tors have made head­way in for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan’s pre­lim­i­nary in­quiry in­to wit­ness tam­per­ing al­le­ga­tions.

Dur­ing a hear­ing of the in­quiry, ear­li­er this month, Chief Mag­is­trate Maria Bus­by-Ear­le-Cad­dle took is­sue with the fact that pros­e­cu­tors from Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) had failed to meet pre­vi­ous dead­lines for fil­ing wit­ness state­ments.

When the case came up for hear­ing at the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates’ Court yes­ter­day, Bus­by-Ear­le-Cad­dle was in­formed that most of the wit­ness state­ments in the case, in­clud­ing those of Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith and Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) di­rec­tor David West, have been filed and served.

Ram­lo­gan’s de­fence at­tor­ney Pamela El­der, SC, al­so in­formed the court that her team had al­so filed ev­i­den­tial ob­jec­tions to some of the tes­ti­mo­ny found in the state­ments.

The case was then ad­journed to Ju­ly 9.

Ram­lo­gan is charged with mis­be­hav­ing in pub­lic of­fice and ob­struct­ing jus­tice.

He is ac­cused of ob­struct­ing jus­tice by us­ing threats and bribery in Oc­to­ber 2014, to per­suade West to not give ev­i­dence in his (Ram­lo­gan) defama­tion case against then Op­po­si­tion Leader and cur­rent Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

He is al­so ac­cused of mis­be­hav­ing in pub­lic of­fice by im­prop­er­ly en­deav­our­ing for West not to tes­ti­fy on Row­ley’s be­half. He was placed on $350,000 bail when he first ap­peared in court in 2017.

Even with the charges against him, Ram­lo­gan has con­tin­ued to prac­tice, as the Dis­ci­pli­nary Com­mit­tee of the Law As­so­ci­a­tion can on­ly take ac­tion against him in the event if con­vict­ed.

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi re­cent­ly caused con­tro­ver­sy over the case as he mis­tak­en­ly claimed that the case was set to com­mence.