By Tahna Weston
A local attorney is accusing judicial officers within the magistracy of weaponising the remand system.
During an interview with Observer media, Wendel Alexander said individuals are being remanded to prison for simple offences because a magistrate wants to consider what sentence should be imposed.
He said that magistrates are using “this weapon of remand too drastically”, which he asserts is bad for the administration of justice.
“A person gets charged for an offence of battery, which would not normally require a jail sentence. The magistrate sentences them up to prison on remand for seven days so he or she can work out the sentence. What utter nonsense on a very simple matter.
“And so persons who … should not have been in prison, persons who … get convicted for simple offences where the magistrate can sit down and work out the sentencing, are sent up to prison for several days just because the magistrate has the power to send them to prison,” Alexander said.
“Persons who can be granted bail under the magistrate’s Code of Procedure Act and by virtue of small charges offences can be granted bail. The magistrate is saying, well, you can’t get bail here, but we have the form there. You can apply for bail at the High Court. What utter nonsense; sit down and do your work.”
Alexander said many accused persons are being frustrated by the position which magistrates are now taking, in spite of there being a presumption in favour of bail when a person is charged for a simple criminal offence.
He noted the issue of sending a person and restricting their liberty at His Majesty’s Prison should be used sparingly and in cases in which it is really necessary. According to him, the process of remand has become almost cliché.
The defence attorney is of the opinion that the rights of the poor people in Antigua and Barbuda are being trampled upon, because adjudicators do what they please.
“And by the way, the High Court has just ruled on an issue where remands are concerned because since after the COVID, they were remanding persons and forgetting them up at His Majesty’s Prison, until a constitutional motion was filed…by a prisoner.
“And the court held that the persons are to be remanded and come down to the Magistrates’ Court every eight clear days in accordance with Section 239 of the Magistrate’s Code of Procedure Act to be considered for bail or to be further remanded, and there are good reasons for it. And so persons’ rights are being infringed upon because they are the picky-head people in Antigua. It’s as simple as that,” Alexander argued.
Alexander says he intends to challenge whether or not a magistrate has the authority to remand individuals for simple offences, since some are overusing and abusing their authority.
The attorney recounted a situation in which he claims that a magistrate refused to entertain a bail application for an accused, charged with a sexual offence, from a lawyer whom he sent to assist him in making the submission.
“But if it was Mr-this-son or Mr-that-son, the magistrate would have. I know that. But nobody talks about these things. But the point I’m trying to make…the lawyer has a right to apply for bail. But the lawyer did not get a chance to make the application to apply for bail. Those are my instructions. And I have seen the affidavit which suggested that,” Alexander said.
Is this the same judge that remanded the Rasta father to 1735 for assaulting the school principal who suffered minor injuries?
And who is/are the judge[s] that have allowed the driver that mowed down the two medical students and left the scene of the accident (which is a crime) to remain FREE while the case continues to be consistently delayed?
There are so many problems with the Antigua Magistrates Court. In order to begin to address them we need to implement greater transparency. Let’s start by video recording all proceedings and making those recordings available to the public. That will immediately go a long way towards keeping Magistrates on the straight and narrow. People would be horrified if they knew some of the things that are taking place in the courts of little Antigua. Some have called it a Star Chamber, a reference to a corrupt court of long ago. Then you have a certain cabinet minister who relies on the people’s terror of a corrupt court system to suppress the voices of his critics.