Citing international obligations that require him to leave Guyana regularly, former president Bharrat Jagdeo has moved to the High Court to lift travel restrictions placed on him due to private criminal proceedings that were recently brought against him.
Jagdeo this week was read the private criminal charge that he made racially divisive statements at Babu John, Corentyne. Whim Magistrate Charlyn Artiga granted his release on self-bail but instructed that he should not leave the country without the court’s permission. Should there be an emergency, she directed that he inform the opposing counsel and the court at least a day before the prospective court date.
He is due to return to court on June 23rd for the beginning of the preliminary inquiry into the charge.
However, a petition filed yesterday in the High Court on Jagdeo’s behalf by attorney Murseline Bacchus contends that the condition would cause “an onerous duty and grave hardship” on the former president, who resides over 75 miles from the Whim Magistrate’s Court “and he can only seek permission to leave the jurisdiction on the days that the case would be called.” It further notes that the magistrate sits at the Whim court on only two days of the week.
The petition also charges that the magistrate failed to take into consideration the possibility that Jagdeo may need medical attention overseas as well as his overseas obligations. In addition, it says the magistrate failed to give Jagdeo’s lawyers an opportunity to address her on any conditions of bail she was considering to impose.
“Your Petitioner is aware of his legal responsibility to appear in Court on whatever dates the case may be fixed for and he has no intention of absconding,” it adds.
Jagdeo was widely condemned for his comments at Babu John, where he used a pejorative term to describe Indo-Guyanese and stated that this was how another section of the populace referred to them. He gained full support from the former ruling party for these statements.
The statements were later described as racially divisive by the Media Monitoring Unit of the Guyana Elections Commission.
