Court to decide on former PM retrial
Published:Wednesday | June 4, 2008 | 4:43 PM
Magistrate Ejenny Espinet is to decide on June 20 whether to remove herself from presiding over the retrial of former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday.
Panday has been charged with failing to declare a London bank account to the Integrity Commission.
In April, the Privy Council upheld a High Court ruling ordering Panday to be retried, after the lower court quashed the three-year jail term.
Yesterday, former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, one of Panday\'s lawyers, filed an application indicating that the Opposition Leader could not possibly get a fair hearing before Magistrate Espinet.
The prosecution, led by British Queen’s Counsel Sir Timothy Cassell, said it is relying on the judgment previously made by the magistrate that she is not biased.
Panday, 75, has petitioned the High Court challenging the magistrate\'s insistence on presiding over the case, although she was hearing another case relating to the same evidence.