Four foreign experts named

By FRANCIS JOSEPH, www.newsday.co.tt

THE NAMES of four foreigners surfaced yesterday as the preliminary inquiry continued into charges laid against eight persons and three companies in the $1.6 billion Piarco Airport Terminal Development project. At the request of the defence, the prosecution finally supplied the names - Bob Lindquist, Hans Marshdorf, Rodney Stamler, and Raimondo Lopez-Pino Levi. They were all persons working with the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau (ACIB) in 2002. Lindquist, a forensic accountant, was hired by the Government to investigate the airport project, while the other three were associates brought in to work with Lindquist.

When the inquiry resumed before Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates' Court yesterday, English Queen's Counsel Edward Jenkins was introduced to the court as a new member of the prosecution's team. He was admitted to practice in Trinidad on Tuesday and took up his position yesterday. Frank Solomon SC, one of the defence attorneys, told the court that he first made an application for disclosure on June 15 concerning station diaries and other materials. He said the prosecution promised to supply them, but so far nothing had been produced. "I am satisfied that there is a deliberate procrastination to avoid producing the documents which we have been promised. I now want you to make a formal order so the prosecution can produce these documents," Solomon added.

Lead prosecutor Gilbert Peterson SC said the diaries were being perused. He said one extract was supplied to him, but he expressed dissatisfaction with it and asked the Bureau to go through the diaries again. He said with the passage of time, notes taken on scraps of paper would no longer be available two years later. "If that is so, these scraps are not likely to be around," he added. Solomon responded, "You can't conduct a prosecution like this in secret." Another defence attorney, Desmond Allum SC, said his junior Rajiv Persad sent a letter dated October 15, 2002, asking for certain items, including station diaries, with respect to the execution of warrants on Northern Construction Ltd premises at Point Lisas on January 25 and 30, 2002. "No concrete responses have been made with respect to these requests. What is the difficulty in this? If there are no entries in the diaries, tell us about it."

Gillian Lucky, who represents Steve Ferguson, said Peterson cannot rely on the passage of time for the non-production of material. She asked that the names of the experts be revealed. Peterson denied that the prosecution was being conducted in secret. Although he promised to give the names of the experts at the end of the day's proceedings, Peterson was called on by the Chief Magistrate to give the names. "What is so hard in giving the names if you have them?" Mc Nicolls asked. The names were eventually supplied. Corporal Joanne Archie, who is attached to the ACIB, continued to be cross-examined yesterday by Fyard Hosein, Vernon De Lima, and Reginald Armour SC.