By Latrishka Thomas
Suspended Superintendent Ray John and his co-accused, Shakema Charles, will have to wait until the new year to find out if their passport fraud case will proceed.
Magistrate Conliffe Clarke was expected to rule on a no-case submission filed by the defence in the matter but the case had to be adjourned yesterday.
His decision will determine whether the case is referred to the High Court for a second trial.
The case, which began in 2018 with allegations of conspiracy to forge passport bio pages using unauthorised Multi-Layered Infilling Sheets has evolved.
Earlier this year, the pair seemed to have escaped justice when High Court Judge Justice Tunde Bakre freed them after a three-week judge only trial. However, this reprieve may be short-lived as the prosecution pushes for a new trial.
John and Charles face revised charges, with John shouldering two additional counts of receiving the unauthorised sheets.
Defence attorneys Hugh Marshall and Michael Archibald are fighting tooth and nail to have the case dismissed or, at the very least, tried in the Magistrates’ Court rather than the High Court.
They filed submissions a few months ago arguing that restarting the matter would be an abuse of process and claiming that the prosecution should instead appeal Bakre’s decision.
In October, Magistrate Clarke, seeking additional information on two points from their submission, gave the defence 14 days to file the required documents.
He was to issue his ruling yesterday but it was instead pushed to January 20, 2025.
