President should determine if AG is fit to remain in Office- Jagdeo

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo is calling on the President to investigate the “disrespectful” conduct of Attorney General, Basil Williams against High Court Judge, Justice Franklin Holder, on March 23.

On March 23, Justice Holder noted that Williams was “insulting (and) disrespectful” when he said “I could say what I want to say and when I want to say it, I have always been like that” in the courtroom.

During a Press Conference today, (April 03, 2017), Jagdeo noted that as the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Williams should carry himself with “decorum.”

Calling on the President to launch an investigation into the incident, Jagdeo said “his behaviour in Court is one thing, but his ability, whether he is still fit to hold office; is only the President can make that determination because he was appointed by the President. And so, assuming the President’s investigations find that he did make these comments to a Judge, it’s the President that has to discipline him.”

He further suggested that “the President can do so by removing him from office, by doing what they’ve done before…to reshuffle to another Ministry, maybe the Ministry of Social Cohesion,” alluding the reshuffling of Minister George Norton from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Social Protection, after he was embroiled in a Drug Bond Scandal.

The High Court Judge, Justice Holder, has demanded an apology in open court.

However, the PPP has cited several instances where the behaviour of the Attorney General was called into question.

In a previous press statement, the PPP had pointed to the AG’s attack on the former Chancellor of the Judiciary in the State-owned Guyana Chronicle newspaper and “the Attorney General’s constant criticism of judges in and out of court and in the press when they rule against him.”