As pressure mounts on his Attorney General (AG) to quit, President Donald Ramotar yesterday contended that a chilling taped conversation between AG Anil Nandlall and a senior Kaieteur News reporter was illegally obtained and as such that is the first issue that needs to be dealt with.
Many observers have questioned the government’s position on the matter and their strong stance in support of the AG saying that the content of the 19-minute recording must take priority.
One day after the Alliance For Change (AFC) called for the immediate resignation of Nandlall, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) adopted a similar position.
Asked shortly after he delivered remarks at the opening ceremony of the National Toshaos Council (NTC), why the government has defended Nandlall without authenticating the tape, Ramotar said “no, that is not the case, (it is) the case that he was illegally taped. That is illegal. You seem to be missing the point… What was done was illegal. That is the first point that we must deal with”.
The government in a statement to the press hours after Kaieteur News (KN) proprietor Glenn Lall submitted a statement and a copy of the taped conversation to the police, had said that it was standing by Nandlall, while stating that his private conversation with a reporter was manipulated for “dastardly” purposes. It went further to accuse KN of being indecent and immoral “to manipulate a loose, private conversation in such a dastardly way.”
Quizzed about the government’s belief that the tape was manipulated without first verifying the authenticity of it, Ramotar stated “it was manipulated because it was taken totally out of context. What is being done is to take everything out of context. We are not talking about doctoring the tape or recording of it. We are saying that it was not contextual”.
When told by one reporter that the contents of the conversation puts the government in a bad light, he responded “that is according to you”.
For the third day in a row, Stabroek News has been unable to get a comment from Nandlall on the content of the recording. When called yesterday he said that he was going to prepare a statement on the issue. Up to press time last evening no statement was forthcoming.
Lall has since said that the threats made on the recording are the most recent of many attempts to muzzle the newspaper for its exposing of acts of corruption in the government.
In the recording, a voice said to be the AG’s is heard saying that Lall “feels that he is above the law” and has resorted to using the daily newspaper “as a weapon.”
“Everybody doesn’t have a newspaper to use as a weapon,” the voice said. It continued, “I told Adam [Adam Harris, KN editor], I said, ‘Adam, people got weapons, right. They ain’t got newspaper to use as a weapon; they got weapons. And when you continue to attack people like that and they have no way of responding they will just walk with they weapon into that same [expletive] Saffon Street office and wha’ come shall do.”
The person then continued, “And innocent…” before changing course and continuing, “Peter will have to pay for [expletive] Paul in that way. I tell you, honestly, man to man that will happen soon.” He further advised the reporter to “get out of deh,” the quicker, the better.
Harris in an invited comment to Stabroek News yesterday insisted that he still believes that his newspaper is in the right, adding that “this should not have gone so far”. He said that the Kaieteur News has been exposing acts of corruption and this has been met with little or no reaction. He said that now with the release of the recorded conversation, the government has decided to retaliate.
Harris whose name was mentioned during the recorded conversation said that he became aware of the content when he spoke to Lall on Sunday night. He said that he subsequently advised the newspaper owner to speak to his lawyer and report the matter to the police.
Harris said he believes that the mention of his name was in reference to previous casual conversations he had had with the Attorney General during which some of what was said on the tape was mentioned.
Responding to allegations by the government that the recording was doctored, Harris said that that is untrue. “No one manipulated anything”, he said before adding that the government seemed not to be aware of technology. Harris explained that anyone with a Samsung cell phone can utilize the recording feature and before speaking on the matter, the government such have sought expert advice. “They are barking up the wrong tree”, he said adding that they should have done some research on the issue first before commenting.
He insisted that Nandlall was informed that the conversation was being recorded. According to Harris if one pursues the transcript or listens to the recording they will notice that.
Sub judice
Meanwhile, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon when asked yesterday at the weekly post-cabinet press briefing how government would respond to calls by the AFC for Nandlall to step down and how government plans to deal with the issue and the content of the recording, said that a comment could not be made since the issue is now engaging the attention of the court.
Nandlall through his attorney at law Sase Gunraj on Tuesday filed a lawsuit for $30M. Harris, Lall and the National Media Publishing Company Limited, the publishers of the Kaieteur News were listed as the defendants.
In court documents Nandall is seeking $10M for alleged libel contained in the headline “Attorney General reveals plan to HIT Glenn Lall, Kaieteur News” which was carried on October. He requested a similar sum for the alleged libel contained in the article as well as an additional $10M in aggravated damages.
In his statement of claim the AG, said that what was published was untrue and maliciously done so as to tarnish his reputation.
“I would say one thing, the discussion that took place at Cabinet surrounding this issue may have indeed been of interest to the media and to the public at large. However information has been provided and until we have clarified this issue the information about the legal action being filed where this matter is concerned had ordinarily aroused the notion of this matter being sub judicie. Until we are advised differently I would plead your understanding that we will be unable to discourse publicly on the matter”, Luncheon said.
Asked whether the government was not even prepared to respond to the resignation calls, he said “not even that. I think that in our efforts to be correct, the advice is being sought on the application of that principle where it comes to the government’s official pronouncement on this matter”.
Veil lifted
APNU MP Joseph Harmon told reporters at a press conference yesterday that the AG has lifted the veil on the sinister operations of the PPP/C.
Reading from a prepared statement, he said that over the years his party has accused the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration of being “in bed with criminals; extra judicial killings; contract killings; corruption and cavorting with drug lords”.
“Our worst fears have been confirmed as a result of revelations emanating from a recorded conversation between the Attorney General, Anil Nandlall and a Kaieteur News reporter, Leonard Gildarie”, MP Basil Williams said adding that in the conversation the AG made several references to murky, shadowy and violent figures of the criminal world “who with one phone call or the deployment of their weapons could wreak havoc on hapless victims”.
“The Attorney General as head of the Guyanese Bar and the Government’s legal adviser holds a pivotal position in the maintenance of law and order in this country. He has breached that trust reposed in that Office by the Guyanese people and must perforce pay the price”, he said, adding that the party calls for the immediate resignation of Nandlall from the Office of Attorney General of Guyana.
Harmon added that what was in the recording is evidence that the “government is hell bent on running a secret regime and a criminal enterprise”. He said that the president is now presiding over a cabinet of ministers who are not worthy of the people’s trust. While echoing Williams’ call for Nandlall to leave office, Harmon said that everyone knows that “nothing much will happen because the government has already taken this position that in spite of this scandalous matter that they are prepared to stand by their attorney general”. He warned that if the government fails to act, then the people of Guyana will have to take the necessary steps.
“I believe that if Nandlall doesn’t resign then we should ask that the entire government resign’, he said.
Later asked whether APNU will use their power in parliament to deal with this issue, Williams said “yes of course he is a Member of Parliament…certainly if that no confidence motion wasn’t afoot we could have bring him up before the privileges committee”.
Genuine
The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) in a statement yesterday said that it is convinced that the recording is genuine. The party, a member of opposition coalition APNU, said that it read a transcript of the taped conversation with “shock and disgust” and is appalled by the Government’s decision to question the authenticity and accuracy of the transcript and recording and to stand by Nandlall.
According to the release, the decision to rally around Nandlall makes the PPP complicit in the threats of violence and the improprieties in the obscenity-laden call where he “announced his knowledge of breaches of laws of Guyana by at least two persons as well as a plot to attack the Kaieteur News for the purpose of harming individuals working therein”.
It was stated that had the statements and threats made on the recording been made by an ordinary citizen, it would be bad enough. “That they were made by the country’s Attorney General and Chief Legal Officer is egregious and totally unacceptable. Since there is more than enough evidence of criminality the WPA calls on the Guyana Police Force to undertake a thorough and independent investigation of all the circumstances including the authenticity of the recording”, the WPA said.
The party said that it recalls that Nandlall in a 2006 letter stated “Even if the law afforded a right to privacy in Guyana, having regard to the nature of the matters contained in the recorded conversation that right to privacy would have had to bend and bow to the constitutional right to free expression. This has been submitted so that the public is not misled on vital matters of law”.
WPA in its statement further called on the president to relieve Nandlall of his portfolio without delay. “The country can ill-afford an Attorney General who has publicly demonstrated his unfitness for any public office. His continuation in office is an insult to all Guyanese and brings Guyana into regional and international disdain”, it said, adding that the WPA calls for individual and collective petitions/letters to bring this breach by a senior officer of the court to the highest levels of regional and international attention.
