Principal Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle yesterday remanded drug-accused businessman Barry Datram to prison even as his attorney, Vic Puran argued that the provisional arrest warrant issued for his arrest was null and void.
Magistrate Robertson-Ogle had just moments before approved an application for a provisional arrest warrant to be issued for Datram to bring him before the court made by attorney-at-law Candace Raphael, on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The move came after the High Court had earlier in the day ordered that Datram be freed, squashing the provisional arrest warrant issued for him by Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton earlier in the week. Puran told Stabroek News that he had argued that the magistrate had issued her warrant in her office when she had no jurisdiction to do so. He said that Justice Jainarayan Singh Jr yesterday ruled that the provisional warrant issued by Magistrate Octive-Hamilton was void and a nullity because he could find no authority in the common law or statute which permitted the magistrate to sit in chambers and issue a warrant. He said that the judge ruled too that no evidence was led at all and therefore there was nothing upon which Magistrate Octive-Hamilton could have issued a provisional warrant. The judge also found that no evidence of identity was led and he found that the provisional warrant was void and ordered the release of Datram.
Puran said Datram was taken back to the Brickdam police station where he was held and then released but was followed closely by the police who arrested him again in the vicinity of Bourda market without informing him of the reason.
When Datram appeared at court yesterday Raphael applied for his committal pending the authority from the minister to proceed with the extradition matter. She stated that under Section 15.3 of the Fugitives Offenders Act it is now for the magistrate to commit Datram for a period not exceeding one month pending the authority to proceed.
Puran in response to the submission said that the detained person (Datram) was unlawfully before the magistrate in that the provisional warrant issued by her upon which he was brought to the court is null and void.
He said that it was null and void because the information upon oath has no evidence because such evidence had to be admissible and everything in the admission oath was hearsay.
He stated that the prosecution has to provide information but it must also provide some evidence. He asserted that there must be evidence of identity that “the person Datram, who is wanted in the US, is one and the same person for whom they are issuing the provisional warrant”. He declared that there was no evidence of identity and when the magistrate told him that there was a photograph, he stated that even if it formed part of her papers, it cannot be looked at.
Puran further submitted that the prosecution cannot have the benefit of a provisional order because of non-disclosure of certain facts and he stated that the prosecution did not disclose that Datram was freed by the high court and the provisional warrant issued by Magistrate Octive-Hamilton had been squashed.
Raphael in response said that according to her information, at the time she made the application for the provisional warrant to be issued Datram was not in police custody and had already been released.
After listening to the arguments the magistrate remanded Datram to prison until Christmas Eve when he will return to Court One.
