Prisoner gets go-ahead to challenge case starting afresh

Murder accused Akilli Charles has received the court’s permission to challenge the decision of acting Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle to order that his case be restarted.

Charles was one of five prisoners who rioted at the Port of Spain Magistrates Court in April after learning that former chief magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar had been appointed a High Court judge.

He was before former Ayers-Caesar on a murder charge and the seven-year-long preliminary inquiry was nearing its end when she was appointed a judge.

His case was one of 53 left unfinished by Ayers-Caesar and on June 1, Earle-Caddle ordered that the preliminary inquiry for the murder charge against him should be restarted.

He filed a judicial review application and, on Wednesday, Justice Devindra Rampersad granted Charles leave to advance his complaint, which includes his contention that his constitutional rights to the protection of the law and a fair hearing by an independent tribunal were infringed.

He will also seek to have the decision to restart his case thrown out.

His action has been transferred to Justice Carol Gobin, who is presiding over an interpretation summons filed by the Attorney General which seeks to have the court pronounce on the way forward for Ayers-Caesar’s unfinished cases.

Hearing of that action took place on Wednesday when several objections were made, as well as calls for the summons to be thrown out.

Among those with objections is Ayers-Caesar, who has a separate complaint against the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) and who insists she is still a judge and was forced to resign.

Also objecting were the JLSC, the Criminal Bar Association and several of the accused whose cases were left in abeyance.

They all say there is an overlap between Ayers-Caesar’s lawsuit against the JLSC and the AG’s action.