Former Minister of Finance Winston Jordan has filed an action in which he is seeking damages in excess of $300,000,000 against the police and Director of publications (DPP), whom he said had maliciously charged and prosecuted him.
Meanwhile, in a separate constitutional action, he is asking the Supreme Court to declare that the police had infringed his right to protection from inhumane and or degrading treatment and protection of freedom of movement.
His court actions surround the misconduct in public office charge which had been instituted against him back in December of 2021; and for which he was found not guilty in May of last year.
Jordan was cleared of the charge after the Magistrate’s Court found that the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) had not proved its case against him and that he therefore had no case to answer.
In his claim for damages filed earlier this month, which lists the Attorney General, DPP and the two police officers who instituted the charge, Jordan contended that the criminal charge was “intentionally” and “wrongfully” instituted against him.
He said that not only was the charge intentionally and wrongfully instituted against him, but that he was also wrongfully pursued by the prosecution, which sought an order that a warrant be issued for him.
That order, he noted, was dismissed in February, but he was keen in pointing out that the prosecution had intended that such a warrant be in place consequent upon the dismissal of the charge.
Jordan is also seeking damages for what he said was his “false imprisonment and wrongful detention.”
In addition to seeking aggravated, exemplary, and vindicatory damages; Jordan also wants the state to offer him a public apology for his prosecution.
To the damages being sought, he is seeking the payment of interest at a rate of 6% per annum from the date of filing to the date of judgement and thereafter at a rate of 4% per annum from the date of judgement until fully paid.
He is also seeking any further order the court may deem just to grant, in addition to costs.
In his fixed date applications (FDA) for both actions, Jordan said that after more than two hours of questioning by the police at the SOCU’s office on December 2nd, 2021, he was arrested, charged and photographed.
He said that after the charge was read to him, he was then informed by police that he could not leave the SOCU’s office; adding that he was subsequently driven in a car, accompanied by three police/SOCU officers, to the Sparendaam Police Station to be detained in custody.
Jordan detailed that in the process of being placed in the custody of the police officer at the Sparendaam Police Station, his “health began to deteriorate,” citing his diabetic condition with which he said he had been diagnosed some 10 years earlier.
Jordan said that the Station Sergeant refused to accept him in the deteriorated health condition, thus forcing the police officers to rush him for urgent medical attention to the nearby Plaisance Health Centre. That facility he said, however, was ill-equipped.
Jordan detailed that the nurse who attended to him at the Plaisance Health Centre requested that an ambulance be summoned to facilitate his urgent transportation to the Georgetown Public Hospital, but the police refused to call for paramedics which created a stand-off between them and his lawyers. He further detailed being taken back to SOCU headquarters where he was eventually released into the custody of his attorneys, who he said promptly took him to the Davis Memorial Hospital where, after being examined, he was prescribed medication and given five days’ sick leave.
According to Jordan, five days later—on December 7th—he returned to the hospital for a scheduled follow-up visit at which his condition was listed as still unstable, and as a result he was prescribed more medication and told to rest for an additional 15 days.
Jordan deposed in his FDA that on December 24th, 2021, SOCU officials visited his home and served him a summons to appear before the Chief Magistrate, on December 28th before whom he was then formally arraigned.
Jordan said that the numerous court hearings which followed, resulted in persistent health issues as he often had to be given medication and sick leave between hearings.
He said, too, that during that period, he paid hefty medical bills in addition to $3,000,000 for bail, transportation cost to report to and from the SOCU office every last Friday of the month, transportation cost to and from court hearings and legal fees.
Stating that his reputation was crucial to his career, Jordan said that his personal and professional reputation and standing have been “irreparably and severely damaged by the intentional and wrongful institution of these malicious proceedings.”
He said, too, that “his family have suffered and continue to suffer financial injury, constant grave distress, humiliation, embarrassment, indignity, pain and suffering,” owing to his character being impugned and brought into disrepute by the state.
According to Jordan, he has, as a consequence “been seriously injured in his character, credit, health, reputation and profession and has been brought into public scandal, odium and contempt… humiliation, embarrassment, indignity and pain.”
The damages claim has been fixed for hearing today before Justice Navindra Singh.
Meanwhile, his constitutional claim is fixed for hearing on June 21st, before Chief Justice Roxane George.
Background
Back in December of 2021, SOCU brought the charge against Jordan.
It had always been the contention of his legal team led by Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, that Jordan was not a public officer.
Jordan’s acquittal came after a finding by the court that he could not be considered a public officer because he had been appointed a minister and not a public officer in the public service.
The allegation against Jordan had been that, being and performing duties of Minister of Finance and being the concerned minister for the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited, a company owned by the Government of Guyana, between February 26, 2020, and Friday, July 31, 2020, at Main Street, Georgetown, he wilfully misconducted himself by acting recklessly when he signed a Transfer of Property Order, transferring to and vesting to BK Marine Inc over 2.553 acres at Mudlots 1 & 2, F of Mudlot 3, A, B & D, situated at North Cummingsburg, Georgetown.
It was claimed that the property, which is valued at over $5 billion, was sold for $20,260,276, a price that was grossly undervalued to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public’s trust and without reasonable excuse or justification.
