Trial to begin today

THE contempt of court trial of Suva lawyer Richard Naidu will proceed in the High Court in Suva today after the Court of Appeal refused to grant a stay of proceedings yesterday.

Court of Appeal Justice Almeida Guneratne refused Mr Naidu’s application seeking a stay of the High Court proceedings pending an appeal of Mr Naidu’s previous applications to set aside the contempt of court proceedings and for an oral hearing to cross-examine Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum on his affidavit in the case.

On Monday, Mr Naidu’s lawyer, Jon Apted, submitted to the court that Mr Naidu was denied his right to counsel of choice in the earlier applications.

Mr Apted submitted Mr Naidu was cast as an accused person in committal proceedings and his right to remain silent with the presumption of innocence was affected, and had not been properly addressed by the High Court.

He also submitted that Mr Naidu would have been entitled to orders in his favour had he been allowed to crossexamine the A-G.

Lawyer for the A-G, Gul Fatima, submitted the main issue before the High Court was the allegedly contemptuous Facebook post.

Ms Fatima submitted that the A-G was justified in initiating the proceedings.

She also submitted that only after trial would there be a determination of whether or not the post amounted to contempt.

Ms Fatima further submitted that Mr Naidu was seeking to avoid the committal, which was in the interest of the majesty of the court and must be allowed to proceed.

In his written judgment on Mr Naidu’s application, Justice Guneratne said the right to counsel of choice was still open to him as the High Court trial was still afoot for him to defend.

He said he did not think the High Court judge had a statutory or common law duty to address Mr Naidu’s right to remain silent and presumed innocence when at a stage where the trial on the committal proceedings had not yet started.

He also said that constitutional right would be open for Mr Naidu exercise at trial.

Justice Guneratne said he was of the view that neither an alleged contemnor, nor an alleger of contempt, could be compelled as a witness and subjected to crossexamination.

He said if the A-G did not take the witness stand his allegation would stand or fall on the evidence of others, whether affidavit or oral. He also said the proceedings were before a court of competent jurisdiction and he could not see any legal basis to grant a stay and refused the application.

However, he did grant Mr Naidu leave to appeal the applications for the full court to express its views.

The trial is scheduled to begin before Justice Jude Nanayakkara today.