By Latrishka Thomas
The lawyer who recently represented two prisoners in the remissions case is not content that the matter has been appropriately addressed. As such, he said that he intends to file a constitutional motion following the ruling on Monday.
On Monday, convicted killers Gideon Jackson and Bryan Frederik Soerowidjojo, who were released and then sent back to Her Majesty’s Prison in March, lost their bid to have the decision overturned when a High Court judge ruled against them.
Attorney Charlesworth Tabor, who represented the two convicts, told OBSERVER media that he disagrees with the judge’s decision and will be taking further action.
“The prisoners, they were released by the Attorney General,” Tabor said. “Based on the principle of the separation of powers, the Attorney General has no power of revocation and the only way those prisoners could have been sent back to prison is on an order from the court. That was not done. No member from the executive — which the attorney general is – has the power to send anybody to prison. That is something for a court of law to do.
So, there are all these abnormalities in what happened and I am going to file a constitutional motion so this matter can be addressed, once and for all, because everything that was done is incorrect.”
The former High Court Master said that his position is “based on the principle of the presumption of constitutionality. Any law is lawful in the Constitution until the court declares that it’s unconstitutional. The court did not declare that the Prison Amendment Act 2017 is unconstitutional. Therefore, we have to assume that the release, by the Attorney General of the prisoners was lawful.”
The dissatisfied attorney also made it clear that he will not desist until the matter has been dealt with equitably. As a result, his constitutional motion will include addressing the unfairness of allowing the other five prisoners who were also released to enjoy their freedom.
“Eight prisoners were released, initially, with the two that I represented, so the other five they are still at large; they are still enjoying their freedom. So, based on the judgement [Monday], everybody that was released by the remission that the Attorney General gave, they should be back in prison. So that will part of the constitutional motion that I am going to file because, based on the Constitution there should be no discrimination whatsoever; they should be treated fairly.
“You cannot have some who are in and some who are out under the same law that was passed by the Attorney General,” Tabor said.
The other convicts who were released are sex offenders Derrick Brady, Mandela Samuel, and Osuide Simpson; fraudster Emerlene Henry; and career animal thief, Kenrick Wiltshire.
Umberto Schenato, who was convicted of murdering his wife, was also sent back to the Her Majesty’s Prison shortly after he was released.