CCJ says former Guyana AG can be sued in defamation case

A judge in Kingston Jamaica will hear submissions Thursday, from the attorneys representing Antigua and Barbuda’s fraud-accused Director of Public Prosecution Anthony Armstrong, who wants his case thrown out of court.  

On January 7, Hugh Wildman made a second attempt to have the matter thrown out of court by the judge adjourned the matter to January 26th.

The court hearing comes on the heels of a decision by the court in December to refuse a stay of proceedings.

The charges stem from the sale of three properties in St Andrew between 1999 and 2002 in which Armstrong had represented the complainant.

During the hearing, Armstrong claimed that the proceeds of the sale were paid over to

the complainant’s father, whom he had authorized to be his agent, while he was incarcerated in the USA.

Hugh Wildman, the lead attorney in the DPP’s case, had made submissions asking for charges against Armstrong to be thrown out and for the proceedings to be stayed, on grounds that it was an abuse of process.

At the December hearing, Wildman argued that there was a long delay in his client being charged, lack of or nonexistent evidence and prosecutorial misconduct.

But the judge ruled that all the grounds proffered by the defense team had failed.

And now, Wildman is seeking to have the case terminated in the parish court.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne said that Armstrong will not be returning as DPP and has agreed to retire from the position he has held since 2005.

“My government could not allow Armstrong to continue to serve in this position given the accusation against him,” Browne said recently.

The Cabinet previously said the Judicial and Legal Services Commission based in St Lucia would determine the actions which are to follow Armstrong’s arrest and charges.

Senior crown counsel Shannon Jones-Gittens was appointed Acting DPP a few days after Armstrong’s debacle.