Georgetown: The Guyana Police Force’s Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) Friday morning withdrew the 19 fraud charges against Dr. Irfaan Ali who is now President of Guyana since he is automatically immune from prosecution.
Ali had faced 19 indictable charges for conspiring with unknown persons to sell lands at Goedveragting-Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara to recklessly sell the house lots for GYD$39.8 million.
The Guyana Police Force Special Organised Crime Unit had said the lands were actually valued a total of GYD$212.4 million at the time of their sale mostly in 2010 and 2011.
The matter was previously called before the Chief Magistrate at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on August 6, 2020, where Ali’s attorney Devindra Kissoon made an application for the charges to be dismissed on the basis that the president is immune from suit as per Article 182 of the Constitution.
The Chief Magistrate had previously adjourned the matter to October 26, 2020, but Kissoon wrote again to various parties including the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), and spoke with the counsel of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) renewing his application that the charges be dismissed since Article 182(2) of the Constitution mandates that no criminal proceedings shall be continued against a sitting President in respect of any done by him in his private capacity.
“The case was withdrawn because SOCU is no longer interested in pursuing the matter because of the office he now holds,” Special Prosecutor Patrice Henry said.
Mr. Henry said assuming the President Ali serves two five year terms, the assumption is that the prosecution’s case would be weakened by the eventual absence of witnesses.
The SOCU Special Prosecutor further explained that based on “good governance issues” the President’s eligibility for visas would have been adversely affected if the charges were not withdrawn.
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