Although she is still to offer advice on the investigation by the Police Office of Professional Responsibility into the arrest of an Attorney for advising her client to remain silent, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Senior Counsel Shalimar Ali-Hack has discontinued the private criminal charge that was filed by the Attorney against the three SOCU Officers who detained her.
In a two-page letter to Magistrate Annette Singh, the DPP said that in the exercise of her powers under the constitution, she was discontinuing the private criminal charges against Police Superintendent Krishnadat Ramana, Sergeant Navranda Persaud and Sergeant Winston Singh.
Attorney Tamieka Clarke, who once worked at the DPP’s Office as a State Prosecutor, filed the private criminal charges against the three Police Officers, claiming wrongful arrest and false imprisonment.
The DPP in her letter to the Magistrate discontinuing the private criminal charges said the issues which are included in the allegations by the Attorney are civil matters which ought to be addressed by the civil case.
The DPP also claims that the charges filed by the Attorney are in relation to acts done in the course of their duties and they are therefore protected by the Justice Protection Act.
She said charging them for false imprisonment under the Kidnapping Act is against the intent and the purpose of the Act, claiming that the charges filed by the Attorney add up to an abuse of process. The DPP said based on her assessment, she has made the decision to discontinue the private criminal charges against the three Police Officers.
Attorney Nigel Hughes who is representing the Attorney who was arrested said the DPP cannot use the Justice Protection Act to protect officers who may have conducted an illegality.
Attorney Tamieka Clarke was arrested back in October by the SOCU agents while she accompanied a client to an interview in relation to a criminal investigation.
During the course of that interview, the Attorney advised her client to remain silent in keeping with his constitutional right. With that advice, the SOCU Officers arrested the Attorney and detained her for more than an hour, locking her away in one of their offices.
She was only released when her Attorneys arrived at the SOCU headquarters and the Attorney General Anil Nandlall also got involved and advised the investigators to release the Attorney.
The Guyana Bar Association has strongly condemned the arrest and led a protest outside the SOCU headquarters, pressing for charges to be laid in the matter.
The Attorney has also filed a civil lawsuit over her arrest.
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