The appointment of Guyanese attorney, Sanjeev Datadin, as special constable working along with the team of investigators in the Antigua IHI fraud investigation has been met with dissent in some quarters.
According to yesterday’s Caribarena, Senior Attorney Anthony Astaphan, who has represented the opposition Antigua Labour Party in several cases, described the appointment as nothing short of outrageous.
Speaking on Observer Radio, the queen’s counsel said Datadin’s appointment represents a serious conflict of interest.
Astaphan said a fundamental conflict arises when the person who should independently and impartially review the evidence and decide whether or not an arrest should be made is also given the powers of arrest.
“I don’t care how ‘holier than thou’ that person is, how clean he may be, or how professional, this is an absolute outrage,” he said.
The report said that Datadin has appeared as the lead counsel before the Tribunal probing the conduct of three members of the Electoral Commission and as attorney for Antigua Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer in a number of cases.
Astaphan feels that the Guyanese attorney’s past association with the government rules him out of consideration for this task.
According to Caribarena, Datadin was undeterred by Astaphan’s comments.
He said he has never worked for the government of Antigua & Barbuda, and that it is not fair for anyone to say so.
“I was counsel for the Tribunal, and I was also retained as counsel in the matter where Lester Bird sued Baldwin Spencer for slander,” he said. “I have also appeared in the matter as counsel for the prime minister in the case where Sir Gerald Watt named Mr Spencer in a suit.
But these are all civil matters. I am not part of the government, nor do I represent the government. The attorney general is that person”, he added.
He said attorneys appear for different clients from time to time, and that the only occasion when a conflict arises is where an attorney appears for someone, yet works against his interest in another matter, Caribarena said.
