Panday goes to Jail!
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08-07-2005, 01:30 AM
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Panday goes to Jail!
Friday, 03 June 2005
Three weeks after telling supporters to expect him to be jailed, and other former government ministers to be arrested, Trinidad and Tobago Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday was on Tuesday charged with corruption, along with his wife Oma, former government minister Carlos John and businessman Ishwar Galbaransingh.And as he promised three weeks ago, Panday rejected the offer of bail, choosing instead to go to jail. The first-ever former Prime Minister in Trinidad and Tobago to be charged with corruption, Panday told a Magistrate that he would not accept bail, and would represent himself, when the matter was called on Tuesday. He and his wife are charged with receiving a bribe of £25,000 - or TT$250,000 - from John on Christmas Eve 1998, in relation to the controversial Piarco Airport Project. John and Galbaransingh are charged with paying the bribe. While John and Mrs Panday agreed to accept bail in the sum of $750,000 each, the former Prime Minister chose instead to go to jail. On May 9, he had told supporters that he expected to be charged, and said if that happened, he would "run the party from jail." He said he expected charges to be levelled against members of his former administration as the Peoples National Movement administration tries to divert national attention from the serious crime wave as well as the fact that five PNM ministers are now being investigated for corruption. On Tuesday afternoon, a smiling Panday was escorted into a heavily-tinted, unmarked police car and taken to the Port-of-Spain State Prison. It is not known how long he will choose to stay in prison, or if he will eventually accept bail. His decision to refuse bail was viewed as a symbolic gesture by his United National Congress colleagues. Earlier, as he walked into the prisoners' docks in the Port-of-Spain First Court, Panday gave a thumbs-up sign to his supporters who flooded the court room. After the charge was read out, Panday shocked everyone when he informed the magistrate that he had no lawyer, and was not getting one. He said he would represent himself during the proceedings. "Didn't we all expect this?" he said to a mob of reporters and supporters when asked about his arrest as he made his way from the courthouse to the police car. Later, UNC chief whip Ganga Singh told reporters the charge against the UNC leader was "obviously politically-motivated." He could not say how long Panday would remain in jail before he accepted bail, saying only that the UNC leader would decide "when bail is necessary." Singh said Panday's decision to refuse bail was to show the "slippery slope to anarchy" to which the country was headed. He said the move to arrest and charge the four was a diversion to direct attention away from the PNM Government's inability to handle the crime situation, and the "obvious corruption against at least five PNM MPs." UNC chairman Wade Mark said he was certain the Pandays would be vindicated in the courts. He said Tuesday's incident was also an example of the lack of impartiality and autonomy of the police, as proof that the arrests were politically-driven. He also said the arrests were the beginning of a "gestapo state." The arrests follow similar action associated with the $1.2- billion airport expansion project, starting as far back as 2002, with former government ministers Brian Kuei Tung and Russell Huggins, Galbaransingh and several others before the courts on corruption charges. The Piarco Airport expansion project was the subject of a commission of inquiry, set up by the PNM Government in 2003, but the findings were never made public. Panday will reappear before the court on June 7. The Caribbean Camera |
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08-07-2005, 01:40 AM
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#2 (permalink) |
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de original sharkbait
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: on the pooper.
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what yuh want to be discussed?
 (even though this is old as hell)
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08-07-2005, 03:20 PM
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#4 (permalink) |
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2003
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who didnt know that they was thiefing in that Piarco project is a dam fool. But i say it eh have no government without corruption, nowhere in the world. But i say we just taking PNM , as the lesser of two evils in power at the moment, at least until they get pull up on corruption charges two. And to be honest, would anybody really be surprised, like i mean totally shocked, to find out that they probably thiefing too, in something else??
NOPE. Just a matter a time, just a matter a time |
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