Called upon to lead their defence in October 2018 former Ministry of the Presidency Permanent Secretary Omar Shariff and his wife, Sabeita Hardeo, who are on trial for allegedly failing to comply with a court order, have been granted another adjournment.
The adjournment was granted on Friday after an attorney, who was standing in for defence attorney Sanjeev Datadin, stated that the defence was not prepared since they were informed by the court clerk that the matter was to be called on August 16th and not Friday’s date.
When trial magistrate Fabayo Azore heard this, she consulted with her clerk and checked her court file, which she stated listed Friday as the date for the matter to be heard. This was supported by Special Organised Crime Unit Prosecutor (SOCU) Patrice Henry.
The attorney, however, maintained his position and requested another date.
This request was granted by the Magistrate and the matter was adjourned until September 27.
On October 30th, 2018, Magistrate Azore had overruled no-case submissions made by attorney Datadin and ordered that the duo lead their defence. Since that ruling, there have been multiple adjournments in the matter.
Shariff and his wife, Sabeita Hardeo, both of Dowding Street, Kitty, are currently on trial on a charge that on or before October 14th, 2016, at Georgetown, they failed to comply with a production order issued by then acting Chief Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards.
It is alleged that without reasonable cause, they contravened the order, which was served by a marshal of the High Court in order for them to produce certain named documents, within seven days, to Assistant Commissioner of Police Sydney James, who was then the head of SOCU.
