An independent prosecutor should be appointed in the Sacred Heart case

An independent prosecutor should be appointed in the Sacred Heart case
Stabroek News letter. Friday 2 May 2008
http://www.stabroeknews.com/?p=2678

Dear Editor,
I am a descendant of generations of parishioners be-longing to the Sacred Heart Church. In the spirit of tradition, my family and other relatives both at home and overseas have been following most major events involving the church, the latest being the destruction of the church by fire in December 2004, and the subsequent court case involving the trial of Mr Fred Sukhdeo, who is accused of making a false insurance claim to secure insurance money amounting to $400M for the burnt-out church.
Some of us who live here have taken time out of our busy schedules to attend the hearings to date. However, we must confess that we are extremely dissatisfied with the poor quality of the prosecution and the repeated adjournments in this case so far. We subscribe to the feeling that justice delayed is justice denied and it is evident that in this case our justice system seems to be lending credence to this feeling which, from all accounts, is shared by a wide cross-section of our citizens.
To date the Director of Public Prosecution has not even extended the courtesy of a response to the request made since last November by His Lordship, Roman Cat-holic Bishop Francis Alleyne for a private independent prosecutor to be appointed to take over from the police prosecutor. It is our understanding that even if the DPP is unwilling to appoint a private prosecutor then she ought to give reasons for her refusal.
Also, she is entitled to nominate a state lawyer from her chambers to take over from the police prosecutor. We are more than curious as to why the DPP would allow the police to prosecute a highly sensitive and technical matter involving an alleged attempt at fraud in the sum of two million US dollars.
From what we have been told, it would certainly be desirable for an attorney (whether private or state) to prosecute such a charge since there may be technical legal principles related to the fraud that a police prosecutor may not be able to establish. We are also aware that the DPP has appointed private prosecutors in matters of a far less trivial nature that may have involved fraud and robbery of sums far below two million US dollars or four hundred million Guyana dollars, as in the present case.
We later learnt that Bishop Alleyne wrote the DPP again last month requesting a response and a meeting with his legal representatives. There has been no response even though the letter was copied to the Honourable Attorney General, the Com-missioner of Police, the Com-missioner of Insurance and the Head of the Presidential Secretariat.
Subsequently, we learnt that the Commissioner of Insurance has since written to the DPP indicating her support for a private independent prosecutor to be appointed.
The case has once more been put off for May 2. As this date approaches we are appealing to the competent authorities to try to resolve this matter without further delay. We are also appealing to all parishioners of Sacred Heart to support our appeal for justice and fair play in this matter.
Yours faithfully,
(name and address supplied)