The High Court has quashed a magistrate’s decision to dismiss four money laundering charges against a Diamond businessman and three others, ruling the case had been thrown out unfairly and without proper inquiry.
Acting Chief Justice Navindra Singh granted judicial review relief to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) on Monday, overturning Magistrate Dylon Bess’s decision to dismiss the charges against Ian Jacobis, Ashiana Salamalay, Shameena Ahmad and Shafee Ahmad for “want of prosecution”.
SOCU had brought the four charges against the accused in July 2024 under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act. The matters were reassigned to Magistrate Bess in February this year.
Court records showed the case had been adjourned to 4 June, but Magistrate Bess dismissed it on 6 May after defence attorney Latchmie Rahamat told him SOCU appeared to have abandoned the matter. SOCU prosecutors said they were never contacted or notified that the case was being heard that day.
In his ruling, Chief Justice Singh found the April adjournment had been for the magistrate to review earlier pre-trial rulings, not for taking evidence, and was not caused by any default on the prosecution’s part. He said the April sitting did not proceed and prosecutors’ reliance on a court-communicated date of 4 June may have stemmed from the court’s own information rather than neglect.
A dismissal for want of prosecution “generally presupposes some culpable failure” by the prosecution, the Chief Justice said, adding that if prosecutors had genuinely been told the matter was adjourned to June, their absence in May “was arguably induced by the court administration itself”.
The court held that fairness required a magistrate to inquire into the reason for a prosecution’s absence before dismissing a case, rather than dismissing it outright. Magistrate Bess was ordered to pay $50,000 in costs to SOCU.
Deputy Commissioner Fazil Karimbaksh, head of SOCU, said it was “unfortunate” his agency had to bring a second judicial review against Magistrate Bess in recent months.
SOCU was represented by attorneys David Brathwaite and Darin Chan. Magistrate Bess was represented by state counsel from the Attorney General’s Chambers, while the accused were represented by defence counsel Latchmie Rahamat and Naresh Poonai.
