{"id":31130,"date":"2026-07-28T20:54:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T00:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=31130"},"modified":"2026-07-28T20:54:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T00:54:26","slug":"ag-says-dpps-murder-charge-recommendation-was-made-under-constitutional-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/ag-says-dpps-murder-charge-recommendation-was-made-under-constitutional-authority\/","title":{"rendered":"AG says DPP’s murder charge recommendation was made under constitutional authority"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Senior Counsel Anil Nandlall says the Director of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) recommendation of murder charges against three individuals in connection with the MV Barima tragedy was made in the exercise of her constitutional authority, stressing that prosecutorial decisions are made independently under the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking on Tuesday evening’s edition of Issues in the News<\/em>, AG Nandlall said criticism of the recommendation failed to recognise the constitutional independence of the DPP, whose prosecutorial decisions are not subject to the direction or control of the Executive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The police conducted their investigations, and they handed a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who reviewed that file with her staff,”<\/strong> he said, noting that the DPP exercised powers conferred by the Constitution in recommending murder charges against the vessel’s captain, chief mate and the Goods Superintendent of the Transport and Harbours Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He maintained that the recommendation reflected an independent assessment of the evidence rather than political direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing questions over the severity of the recommended charge, Nandlall argued that investigators were justified in examining the actions of those with direct responsibility for the vessel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that the captain had legal command of the vessel, the chief mate served as second-in-command, while the goods superintendent was responsible for the management of cargo and the passenger manifest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The very persons who had command and legal control of the vessel… these are what you call principal offenders,”<\/strong> he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Attorney General also referred to information already in the public domain, including reports that the captain and chief mate were allegedly under the influence of alcohol and narcotics, and that passengers were not wearing life jackets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said such factors, together with witness statements gathered during the investigation, would have formed part of the DPP’s assessment in determining whether the level of alleged criminal negligence warranted a murder charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If the DPP forms the view that the criminal negligence was so high that it warrants the charge of murder, that is the DPP’s right,” <\/strong>AG Nandlall affirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He emphasised that while the courts would ultimately determine whether the evidence supports the charge, the DPP’s recommendation represents a lawful exercise of her constitutional authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The court can determine later on whether she is right or wrong, but one cannot say that it is not a reasonable exercise of that power,”<\/strong> he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Senior Counsel Anil Nandlall says the Director of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) recommendation of murder charges against three individuals in connection with the MV…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[469,350],"tags":[488,370,1151,412,405],"class_list":["post-31130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-affairs","category-news","tag-488","tag-guyana","tag-mv-barima","tag-ncn-guyana","tag-ncn-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31132,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31130\/revisions\/31132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}