The Law Association (LATT) has finally broken its silence on the controversial dropping of the criminal prosecution of former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, SC, and ex-UNC senator Gerald Ramdeen.
And it has questions for Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, on the role of his predecessor, Faris Al-Rawi.
On Thursday, LATT’s council sat for almost four hours. It issued its statement late on Friday.
The association came under heavy fire this week for not speaking out on the collapse of the case, although several other groups of attorneys and senior attorneys had already publicly expressed their outrage over the affair.
In its statement on Friday, the association said: "It is our respectful view that the Attorney General should say whether there was any participation, or involvement by the former attorney general in the actual collection of evidence for the purposes of prosecution.
"It is also our view that the signing of an indemnity agreement in 2017 was highly unusual and made more worrying because it appears that Mr Vincent Nelson KC continued to be the recipient of financial benefits from the Government after it was signed; moreover, the alleged agreement appears to contemplate additional benefits to the proposed witness.
"These are only some of the serious issues which concerns LATT and the general public and it is absolutely essential that the current Attorney General, in his role as the guardian of the public interest, breaks his silence and issues a full and unambiguous statement on these matters…"
The association said it was not in a position to determine (in the absence of the full response requested) whether there had been corruption, misfeasance in public office or politically motivated prosecution of any public official, politician or attorney.
However, it said it "maintains that the absence of any robust explanation to the public will encourage speculation of wrongdoing or covering up wrongdoing."
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