TRINIDAD LAWYER SAVED BY BRITISH PRIVY COUNCIL

Convicted on the word of a crook who owed him money!

Attorney Jagdeo Singh, who has had the ominous cloud of a corruption scandal over his head for almost six years now, had his conviction quashed by the Privy Council yesterday. The attorney, who had been behind bars since 2001 on two seven-year terms, was released around 7 p.m. yesterday when the Director of Public Prosecutions intervened. He's now free to practise.

Singh was convicted of corruptly soliciting $40,000 from the wife of one of his clients, Sherry Ann Basdeo, between October and December 1999. The money, Singh had allegedly told Basdeo, was to be used to pay then Deputy Chief Magistrate Deborah Thomas-Felix to grant bail to Basdeo's common-law husband, Rudolph John, who was before the magistrate on a drug charge.

Singh was arrested in a sting operation on December 2, 1999, at the Curepe KFC outlet, along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway, when an undercover police agent, WPC Lystra Bridgelal, handed him the $40,000.

Singh's appeal was heard over two days, and the five Law Lords delivered their decision around midday, after about 15 minutes of deliberation ..... One of the Law Lords, Lord Bingham was reported to have said: "This was not an overwhelming case against (Singh), despite the fact that it could have been. "It was primarily the word of (Singh) against that of (Basdeo) who was not of good character and who had reason for fabricating a story. "On the other hand, all the appellant may have wanted was his fee which the complainant had admitted to owing."

Singh was represented by English lawyers Edward Fitzgerald QC and James Oury and local attorneys Desmond Allum SC and Rajiv Persad. Asked his personal views on the outcome of the appeal, Jairam said he never felt Singh should have been convicted. "He may not be without his faults, but he is a very good attorney and would have been nearing Senior Counsel status by now," he said. He said the criminal justice system had failed Singh, and asserted: "Given what has happened today, I don't think that we can abolish the Privy Council as our final appellate court".

The Court of Appeal, comprising Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma and Justices of Appeal Lionel Jones and Roger Hamel-Smith, dismissed Singh's appeal on November 16, 2002.

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