Lawyers for incarcerated former Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday will return before High Court Judge Anthony Carmona this morning to seek to convince him to release their client on bail pending the hearing of Panday's appeal.
By Daren BahawThis means Panday will spend another night in jail at the Maximum Security Prison in Arouca.
Panday, 72, of Bryan's Gate, Phillipine, San Fernando, was convicted of three charges of failing to declare a London bank account to the Integrity Commission by Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls on Monday and sentenced to the maximum penalty, two years in jail and fined $20,000 on each charge.
McNicolls also made an order of forfeiture directing the former prime minister to repay the State ?159 600.35 ($1.59 million), money which was held in the bank account for the years ending 1997, 1998 and 1999.
The Chief Magistrate also turned down a request made by Panday's attorneys to allow Panday to be free on bail pending the hearing of the appeal.
Panday's lawyers yesterday also lodged an official appeal against both his conviction and sentence before Clerk of the Peace Eugene Prince, at the Port of Spain Magistrates' Court.
Among the complaints listed in the appeal are: the magistrate had no jurisdiction to preside over the case, the court exceeded its jurisdiction in the matter, Panday is not guilty, because the decision of the magistrate is unreasonable and/or cannot be supported having regard to the evidence, the decision is wrong in law and that the sentence imposed is unduly severe.
Around 11.10 a.m. yesterday, attorneys Desmond Allum SC, Fyard Hosein SC, and Rajiv Persad went before Carmona in the Port of Spain Sixth Criminal Court at the Hall of Justice, to make their application for bail but the judge said he needed more time to read the documents.
Carmona had originally adjourned the matter to tomorrow but later informed attorneys that he was bringing the matter forward to today.
Prosecutors Sir Timothy Cassel QC and Senior State attorney Wayne Rajbansie were also informed and turned up before Carmona.
The hearing which remained closed to the media, lasted 20 minutes.
ACP Wellington Virgil, the officer who charged Panday, along with two bail officers, also attended the hearing.
To support their application, the lawyers intend to convince Carmona of Panday's likelihood of success on appeal.
They intend to argue that should Panday be denied bail pending the hearing of his appeal it would mean that their client would remain in jail for almost a year, serving half of imposed sentence.
They would submit that Panday, a veteran politician, who just last week celebrated his 40th year in public life, was not going to abscond if granted bail.
They will also argue that the sentence imposed was too excessive and the order of forfeiture was made without Panday getting an opportunity to make any submissions.
Also, they will raise two constitutional arguments, in that the State went outside the six-month time limit to bring the charges against Panday and that the documents he submitted to the Integrity Commission cannot be regarded as declarations since the Commission has no power to receive declarations after the stipulated cut-off date.
In that regard, Panday would fall in the category of some 200 people who failed to file declarations to the Commission and was singled out for prosecution.
In the alternative, the lawyers will argue that Panday's non-declaration of the bank account was based on the fact that he was aware of the account but was of the honest belief that if was not for his beneficial interest.
