Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the fatal March 3, prison unrest Justice James Patterson yesterday adjourned for five days, a ruling on 28 applications made to the CoI for the divulging of information by the Guyana Prison Service.
These applications called for information such as the names of those in charge at the prison on the days of the unrest, copies of video footage and reports of the events, a copy of the report of the fire department, all statements taken regarding the fires and the post-mortem examination reports of the 17 prisoners who perished in the fire.
The adjournment came after Selwyn Pieters, who was on Tuesday accepted by the Commission to represent the interests of the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Prison Service, objected to any submissions being made without his clients having previewed the relevant documentation.
President of the Guyana Bar Association Christopher Ram, had been in the process of making oral submissions when Pieters interjected, objecting on the basis that he had not been served with a copy of the applications to review.
Commissioner Merle Mendonca commented that the Commissioners had also not received copies of the applications, but she noted that it was up to the Chairman to determine the order of proceedings.
Following a 20-minute adjournment and the initial announcement by Patterson that the ruling would be withheld until today, Pieters once again objected, stating that Ram cannot make an application without the said documents first being perused by prison officials. He stated further that only having received the documents minutes before, he had not yet had the opportunity to speak to his clients and so was not yet briefed on the position they would assume regarding the requests made by the Bar Association. He further stated that while some of the documents were disclosable, in his belief, there were others that were not relevant to the CoI.
“We’re happy to respond in writing. We’re happy to tell you what documents we consent to disposing, the documents that we oppose—and we will give you the legal rationale for why we oppose—and the documents that we consider privileged and non-disclosable in any event,” the attorney stated.
On the subject of third-party submissions made by the Association, he further submitted that it is procedure that any requests regarding third parties are to be served to said persons before a ruling is made.
Patterson, after considering the respective submissions, indicated that a ruling on that matter would be made on Monday.
Meanwhile, Attorney Dexter Todd applied yesterday to appear on behalf of the relatives of Delroy Williams, who perished in the fire on March 3, and Marcellus Verbeke, who he later stated suffered severe burns to most parts of his body. Todd’s application to participate in the CoI and receive all rights associated to holding interested party status was granted by Patterson.
