NDP files appeal in Luke Browne’s case

Lawyers for the New Democratic Party (NDP) have appealed the decision to throw out the case brought against Luke Browne handed down by Chief Magistrate Sonya Young on December 10 last year.{{more}}

This was disclosed at a NDP press conference Wednesday, January 12, by members of that party’s legal team.

According to Trinidadian counsel and member of the NDP’s legal team Keith Scotland, the judgment has been appealed and they are waiting on a date to be set by the Court of Appeal.

“The Luke Browne case has not been abandoned,” Scotland told members of the media, adding that the team was also ready to do battle against Afi Jack who was charged with making a false claim to be registered as a voter in East Kingstown on February 4.

Luke Browne, the Unity Labour Party candidate for the East Kingstown constituency, had been accused of voter registration fraud.

But Chief Magistrate Sonya Young sided with the defense and ruled that the charge brought against Browne was premature and could not stand in trial.

Young ruled that the offense could not have been completed until the person had actually gone to vote.

However, Kay Bacchus-Browne, member of the legal team who represented Patricia Marva Chance, the person who filed the complaint against Browne, promised that they would appeal that decision.

In reacting to the court’s decision back in December 2010, Bacchus-Browne said that the accused were not “out of the woods”, as according to the Magistrate’s ruling the offense would have been committed after the person voted.(DD)