Dear Editor,
Has the charge of perjury become obsolete? I cannot recall it being applied for the longest while. It was good to hear the call for it to be invoked in the Walter Rodney COI.
I have always encouraged – even in letters to the press which were not published – the use of perjury to rein in prescriptive rights claims in particular. There are multitudes of cases where the claimants have lied about occupying the lands, property, etc, unknown to the owners.
In the majority of cases the occupants were friends, family and acquaintances authorized to utilize the lands property, etc, but succeeded in their underhand schemes because the owners were unaware and thus unable to challenge the deceptions perpetrated.
Having this law resuscitated or reactivated will enable lots of people to reclaim their lost properties and deter those with prospective illegal intentions. It will also minimize the numerous criminal acts committed as a consequence of the prescriptive rights law. persons have been maimed, beaten and even murdered as a result of prescriptive rights, and when owners or re-migrants return to occupy their properties and realize they have lost them all hell breaks loose.
It is baffling indeed to know the negatives associated with this law and yet when the ruling PPP/C legislated to outlaw persons claiming government lands recently, they did not see it plausible, beneficial, and advantageous to include private property.
It would seem they condone what was implemented by the PNC regime and let the injustice go.
Editor, I am aware of one glaring case of perjury and see no reason why those guilty should not be prosecuted. A woman and her neighbour have testified to a judge that the woman lived two years with the owner who then died leaving her property to her. The entire community, friends, family even records at the police station, attest to the fact that the owner lived alone when she died and the woman occupied the property five years after her death.
This is the kind of case where the law of perjury should be invoked to set an example which would deter other culprits.
Yours faithfully,
M Sookraj