After almost a year since being directed to lead a defence to a charge that they failed to comply with a court order, former Ministry of the Presidency Permanent Secretary Omar Shariff and his wife Sabeita Hardeo took the witness stand yesterday and professed their innocence.
Shariff and 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.
When their trial finally resumed yesterday in a Georgetown court, Shariff and Hardeo opted to give unsworn evidence before Senior Magistrate Fabayo as opposed to giving sworn evidence or remaining silent in the face of the charge.
Shariff, who testified first, read from a prepared document and told the court that he received the order of the court, dated October 6th, 2016 but never gave his wife a copy of the order.
“At the time I received the order I did not have any of the documents requested in my possession nor in my control,” he said.
He went on to state that he was aware that some of the documents were at the Guyana Revenue Authority, and copies were kept on his computer, which was in the possession of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).
Shariff then noted that he would have made efforts to obtain documents by applying to the banks and suppliers for copies of whatever documents they would find. Subsequent to doing so, he noted that he wrote a statement and delivered the documents along with the statement to a rank at SOCU and went through same in his presence, with him signing that he received the documents.
“I did not breach the court order,” he said.
Upon the completion of his testimony, Hardeo testified and told the court that she had never received any court order requesting her to submit documents to SOCU.
Following the testimony of both defendants, the proceedings were adjourn-ed until October 25th.
On October 30th, 2018, Magistrate Azore overruled a no-case submission made by the defendants’ attorney, Sanjeev Datadin. Subsequent to that ruling, Datadin, at another court hearing, made additional submissions in the matter, in hopes of further persuading the court to not call upon his clients to lead their defence. After considering the additional submissions made, Magistrate Azore maintained her original ruling.
