www.trinidadexpress.com
Thursday, July 20th 2006

THE OBSERVATION by many lawyers and commentators, that the injunction restraining the entire Police Service from executing an arrest warrant against Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma was unprecedented in this country, is wrong.

On March 26, 2001, High Court judge David Myers granted a similar injunction in a lawsuit filed by a Wallerfield man, Neil Singh, who claimed that a police officer, actuated by bias, had initiated false charges against him resulting in the issuance of three arrest warrants.

The case was, however, never completely argued in court, as police killed Singh and two other men in a shootout at Gulf City, La Romaine, on April 6, some 16 days after the court order was granted.

Singh's attorney, Ricky Rahim, had applied for an ex-parte conservatory order to prevent the police from arresting his client on the basis that the police actions in filing three false charges were malicious.

In Sharma's case, his attorneys have argued that Police Commissioner Trevor Paul took deliberate steps to circumvent two existing court orders, which prohibited the police from initiating a criminal charge against the Chief Justice, to cause a charge to be laid which resulted in an arrest warrant being issued.

Justice Judith Jones has reserved her ruling on whether she will allow the injunction restraining the entire Police Service from arresting Sharma on Monday, and she will also rule on whether an injunction against Assistant Commissioner of Police Wellington Virgil will also remain in force.

During a hearing on Tuesday, Sharma's lead attorney said that there had been suggestions, reported in the media, that the orders granted by the judge were unprecedented.

"Whoever is saying that is saying so in ignorance to the plethora of (law) reports where criminal cases are stayed," he said.

Justice Jones noted that she was certain that none of the attorneys involved in the case were responsible for making such a statement.

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