Kaieteur News publisher Glenn Lall has voiced doubts about the investigation of alleged threats to him and the newspaper’s staff by Attorney-General Anil Nandlall, while the police force yesterday announced that it had been trying without success to interview him about his complaint.
The police force warned that its investigation would be “severely limited” without clarification by Lall on parts of statements he submitted on Monday along with a 19-minute recording of a conversation between Nandlall and senior Kaieteur News reporter Leonard Gildarie.
But Lall last evening made it clear to Stabroek News that earlier in the day he spoke to the lead detective, who said nothing about him being needed but rather asked about the whereabouts of the reporter and a statement that he has to give to the police.
The contents of the recording have prompted calls by the opposition for Nandlall’s resignation, while President Donald Ramotar and his government have closed ranks behind the minister, while saying how the recording was made is the pertinent issue. The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) yesterday added its support for the calls for Nandlall to resign.
Lall’s complaint to the police was in part prompted by the recording, which he said has made him fearful for his life along with the lives of his family members and employees.
The police yesterday said that Lall submitted three prepared statements as well as an audio recording and a transcript of the recording.
“The police investigators in this matter have identified a number of issues in the prepared statements that require clarification,” the force said in a statement, while adding that several attempts were made to contact Lall in order to have this done but they were futile.
The statement added that on Wednesday, a letter from Police Divisional Commander of “A” Division was sent to Lall’s office and advised that he subject himself to a police interview in order to address the needed clarification. “However, unto the time of this press release Mr. Glenn Lall has not presented himself for the interview, nor has he made contact with the Divisional Commander regarding the letter,” the statement, which was sent out to the press at 3:29pm, said.
The police also disclosed that they made telephone contact with Gildarie in order to interview him concerning the matter. “However, he has so far shown reluctance in meeting with the police,” they said, while noting that without the clarification regarding the statements made by Lall the force would be severely limited in pursuit of this investigation.
But Lall last evening dismissed the police’s claims as untrue and he later turned up at the Brickdam Police Station in the company of his lawyer but was told that there was nobody there to see him.
“Why I gotta present myself. Do I look like any cake? Where am I presenting myself? Am I some commodity? This is utter nonsense,” he declared.
He stressed that the accusations that ranks were unable to reach him are untrue and pointed out that the police have all his numbers.
He added that he spoke to the senior detective just after noon yesterday and nothing was said to him. He admitted that he did receive a letter from the police late Wednesday afternoon. “If they want to meet I am available… who can’t make contact with Glenn Lall?” he asked.
With respect to Gildarie, he said that he informed the senior investigator during their conversation that the reporter was out of town and will be coming to sign his statement, which has already been prepared, today.
Earlier in the day, when Stabroek News spoke to Lall, he expressed concern at the pace of the investigation and the fact that the police’s attention is centred on making contact with Gildarie.
He said that when he inquired from the investigating rank whether contact was made with Nandlall for a statement, the response he got was that “they too small to talk to the man.” He said that this is a clear indication that police haven’t done anything and he noted that he has done his part by handing over a copy of the recorded conversation and statements.
According to Lall, the police nevertheless keep asking for Gildarie’s whereabouts and his statement. He said that when the time is right for his reporter to give a statement, that will be done and until then the police can listen to the recording and read his statements.
Lall drew attention to the fact that he was first threatened two weeks ago and then again last Saturday and yet he has seen no action. The first report was made two weeks ago at the Ruimveldt Police Station and the second incident which was extended to include his staff, was reported on Monday at Police Headquarters, at Eve Leary. “I give them a further statement. Why they asking for Gildarie…?” he asked, while pointing out that investigators ought to be focused on the threats that have been made.
Given the fact that days have passed since the report was made without Nandlall being contacted, Lall said that this tells him “it [the investigation] ain’t going nowhere.” He added that another sign of this is President Ramotar’s comments mere hours after the police complaint was made that he would be standing behind Nandlall.
For a fourth day running, Stabroek News was unable to get a comment from Nandlall on the allegations and the recording. When contacted yesterday, he promised to speak to this newspaper later in the day but this was never forthcoming and subsequent calls to him went unanswered.
‘Private conversation’
However, in statement issued by the Government Information Agency (GINA) on Wednesday night, Nandlall maintained that the Kaieteur News acted illegally in recording his telephone conversation with one of its staff and making it public.
In an interview with GINA, Nandlall stated that the entire episode is being blown and twisted out of proportion, with the focus being completely misplaced. “The truth of the matter is that I was having a private conversation with a person whom I have known for a number of years. In fact, we went to Queen’s College together. I was speaking about a personal matter. I did not know that the conversation was being recorded,” he was quoted as saying. He added that the recording is obviously illegal and was never intended for the public’s ear.
He said too that the conversation was manipulated and twisted to sound like a completely different dialogue. He noted that the focus should be on “how that conversation was recorded and how it became public.”
In the recording, Nandlall 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,” he says. “I told Adam [Adam Harris, Kaieteur News 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.’”
He adds: “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 Gildarie to “get out of deh,” the quicker, the better.
Harris has since said that some of the utterances were not surprising to him as he had heard them before during casual conversations with Nandlall. He said that this issue should not have gone so far before accusing the government of retaliating over the newspaper’s stance to expose acts of corruption.
In parts of the conversation, Nandlall spoke of a city businessman and his links to drug smuggling. Mention was also made of Lall’s wife, Bhena, and an arrangement she had worked out with the president. Stabroek News was unable to reach Bhena Lall for a comment. Glenn Lall, when asked about the issue, said that he was unaware of what Nandlall was referring to. He said that he did not ask his wife to clarify the issue and he noted that Bhena and Ramotar share a family/friend relationship. He said that while his wife communicates with Ramotar and his family, he does not. The recording suggested that recent tax evasion charges against Lall and his wife had been the subject of discussion between Ramotar and her.
‘Resignation in order
Meanwhile, the GHRA yesterday added its voice to the calls for Nandlall’s resignation. “Almost as shocking as the incident itself, however, is the hapless defence of Nandlall by President Ramotar on the flimsy grounds that the taping of the conversation was illegal. The failure of the President to distance the Cabinet and himself from the content of the call has effectively elevated Nandlall’s action from a personal rant to being the latest step in the increasingly desperate official response to the campaign by Kaieteur News for greater official transparency on public funds involved in a range of controversial projects,” the group said in statement.
According to the GHRA, the “obsessive control” of information by government has provoked more confrontational demands from a frustrated media, which in turn generated government responses targeting media workers in the form of libel suits and the intervention of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA). It was Kaieteur News’ retaliation to the GRA action, in questioning whether one of the relatives of the Attorney-General should not also be the focus of a similar investigation as the one focused on Lall, which appeared to have prompted the ill-tempered telephone call, it pointed out.
“Whether Mr. Nandlall is forced to resign or not—and GHRA believes that resignation is in order—this alone will not resolve the underlying issue. At bottom this latest incident, with all its demeaning characteristics, is rooted in systematic abuse of a core element of democratic practice… The more fundamental question, therefore, is whether, regardless of the cost to governance and to the quality of public life, the government intends continued resistance to provision of timely and accurate information on its stewardship of public funds,” the GHRA said.
