The Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), while confirming that documents are missing from the files in the rape case against Muslim scholar Nezaam Ali, said that efforts are now being made to get replacements.
“Measures are being taken to replace these documents, to have them legally certified for them to be re-sent to the Magistrates’ Court for the re-opening of the paper committals,” a statement from Chambers said in response to an article published in this newspaper on Sunday.
Ali was in 2012 charged with nine counts of rape. He was committed to stand trial by presiding Magistrate Alex Moore the following year. Ali through his lawyer Nigel Hughes later challenged the committal but lost.
“We herein confirm that the nine files with respect to the matter at hand were received at these Chambers on January 19, 2017. When perused by State Counsel, it was discovered that original documents were not in the files,” the DPP statement said.
The statement did not say what documents were missing, but this newspaper was previously told that the medical certificates issued by the doctor/s who examined the boys along with the children’s birth certificates had been removed from each file.
Stabroek News has since learnt that the case will have to go back to the Magistrate’s Court for the magistrate to take additional evidence.
It was the mother of three of the boys who informed this newspaper several weeks ago about the missing documents, which she had heard of months earlier, at her place of worship.
The woman, who is also a Muslim, told this newspaper that she in the company of an official from the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) visited the Supreme Court to check on the case. A clerk showed them the case files but the medical certificates of the boys along with their birth certificates were missing.
She expressed certainty that the documents were removed after Ali lost his bid to have the High Court overturn his committal.
The boys’ mother said that for months she has tried to get the attention of several key government officials. She has written to President David Granger but is yet to receive a response. She also visited the Ministry of Social Protection, while Volda Lawrence was minister and Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan but got no help.
Stabroek News is yet to hear from the newly appointed Social Protection Minister Amna Ally. When approached she was that she was unaware of the matter and asked that this newspaper make contact with her the following week. Stabroek News made contact with her office numerous times thereafter but though promised, no comment has been forthcoming.
A group of child rights advocates have since called for an investigation into the disappearance of the documents from the case files and said that no one should be exempted.
Based on what several legal minds have explained the DPP does not have to get involved at this stage since Ali has been committed. The matter, they say, now falls within the jurisdiction of the High Court.
