They could not recall
Published:Thursday | December 15, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
THE MOTION involving the Cuban light-bulb trial continued yesterday with Jacqueline Samuels Brown, QC, telling the court that the director of public prosecutions (DPP) and other persons who were present at the interview with businessman Rodney Chin cannot recall what took place.
She emphasised during her submissions how important it was for the DPP to make sure that certain guidelines were not breached so as to ensure fairness. She also cited authorities to show that pretrial interviews should be recorded.
Samuels-Brown said it came out almost unwittingly during the trial in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court that DPP Paula Llewellyn, QC, met with Chin in the presence of his lawyers and interviewed him when he was an accused.
Samuels-Brown pointed out that the DPP said she could not recall what took place at the interview and was also saying she had no duty to reveal any notes.
Chin now main witness
Chin, at the time of the interview, was charged jointly with former junior minister Kern Spencer and Colleen Wright.
The charges against Chin were dropped and he is now the main witness for the prosecution in the case against Spencer and Wright.After Chin disclosed that he was interviewed by the DPP, the defence lawyers subpoenaed the DPP in April to testify at the trial.
The defence lawyers want to know the circumstances under which charges against Chin were dropped.
Spencer and Wright are charged with corruption and money laundering in relation to the Cuban light-bulb programme.
After the DPP, who was prosecuting the case, was sub-poenaed, she applied to Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey to have the subpoena set aside, but her application was denied.
The DPP, who is being represented by Lord Anthony Gifford, QC, then took the matter to the Judicial Review Court, contending that RM Pusey misinterpreted the law when she did not grant her application.
DPP Llewellyn is asking Justice Raymund King, Justice Almarie Sinclair Haynes, and Justice Evan Brown to set aside the subpoena.
Samuels-Brown, who is representing RM Pusey, is asking the court not to grant the orders sought.