HIGH Court Judge, B. S. Roy has ordered the Director of Prisons to release James Gibson, the army officer who it is alleged in a constitutional motion, had been wrongly remanded to prison by Magistrate Geeta Chandan, on a spent warrant.
Friendship man charged in murder of Rose Hall cop
Ex-soldier further remanded Magistrate denies bond accusation Hinckson
The
order of the judge was entered and executed Friday afternoon.
Further
hearing of the substantive case against the army officer was
adjourned to Monday, September 11 in Bail Court.
The
granting of the order Friday was the result of the hearing of an
application by Elizabeth Gibson for a writ of habeas corpus in
relation to her son James Gibson, who it is alleged, was illegally
detained.
Represented
by Attorney-at-law, Mr. Basil Williams, the woman claimed that her
son’s fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed under sections
40, 139 and 144 of the Constitution of Guyana had been
contravened. As a consequence, she was seeking certain
declarations including a claim he was being detained on an arrest
warrant purportedly issued by Magistrate Sohan on August 18, 2003,
when the charges against him on the case jackets numbers 153/154
Police v James Gibson were already removed into the High Court by
Order Nisi of Certiorari of June 27, 2003, granted by Justice
Jainarayan Singh.
As
such, the applicant contended that the action by the magistrate
was excessive, arbitrary, unreasonable and oppressive, resulting
in a breach of her son’s fundamental rights and freedoms
guaranteed by the Constitution.
During
the hearing, the magistrate was represented by Senior Counsel Mr.
Murcelene
Bacchus, while the other respondents – the Attorney General, the
Director of Prisons and the Director of Public Prosecutions --
were represented by Mr. Nigel Hawke of the Attorney General’s
Chambers.
James
Gibson was one of two wanted former members of the Guyana Defence
Force (GDF) flushed out of a house in South Ruimveldt, Georgetown
early in June and detained in connection with the missing Army
AK-47 rifles from the Army.
He
was passed through the Blairmont Court on a charge of being in
possession of arms and ammunition.
Gibson
was taken to the Reliance Magistrate’s Court in Berbice on June
14 to answer the charge in relation to the offence allegedly
committed at Rosignol on October 21, 2002, and the case was
transferred to Blairmont.
Magistrate
Chandan, before whom he appeared, remanded him to custody, pending
a police report on the 2003 charges.
In
the granting of his order Friday, Justice Roy, who had the
opportunity of hearing lawyers on both sides, directed that the
Director of Prisons release James Gibson from prison forthwith.
He further ordered and directed that the Chief Magistrate appoint a Magistrate other than Magistrate Chandan to hear and determine the charges against James Gibson on Case Jackets Nos. 153/154, of 2003, and that such hearing be listed for Monday, August 21, 2006.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006