Privy Council rules Trinidad’s top judge must face criminal proceedings
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) – Trinidad’s chief justice must face criminal proceedings to determine if he tried to influence a lower court judge’s ruling in a corruption case against a former premier, the London-based Privy Council ruled yesterday.,/B>
The Privy Council, the final court of appeal for the former British colony, ruled that Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma must stand trial for allegedly trying to pressure a magistrate in a criminal case against former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday.
Authorities charged Sharma on July 14 with attempting to influence the case against Panday, but his lawyers have fended off his arrest for months by obtaining injunctions against the police.
Panday was recently sentenced to two years in prison for failing to declare a British bank account he held while he led Trinidad in the late 1990s – the case that Sharma, who is allied with the former premier’s opposition party, has been accused of trying to influence.
Sharma has said the criminal case against him was launched by the executive branch of government as a way to remove him from office for political reasons.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning has denied involvement in the matter.
