The State of Trinidad and Tobago (Appellant) v Nawaz Ali (Respondent) (Trinidad and Tobago)

Hearing listed

Case summary
Appeal
Change log

Case summary

Case ID

JCPC/2022/0107

Jurisdiction

Trinidad and Tobago

Parties

Appellant(s)

The State of Trinidad and Tobago

Respondent(s)

Nawaz Ali

Issue

Did the Court of Appeal err by upholding the trial judge’s decision to stay the indictment against the respondent?

Facts

In February 2009, Nawaz Ali (the respondent) was charged on an indictment containing three counts of corruption charges. In 2010, the respondent was acquitted by a jury on two counts but convicted by majority verdict on the third. He was sentenced to five years hard labour. He appealed his conviction to the Court of Appeal on the ground that the verdict against him on the third count was inconsistent with the not guilty verdicts on the two other counts on the indictment. The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal in July 2010 and held that there could be no rational explanation for the jury’s verdicts. It ordered a retrial. At the re-trial, the respondent argued that the evidence upon which the Director of Public Prosecutions (the appellant) relied in the first trial on the two counts on which he had been acquitted was inadmissible in the re-trial. On 31 July 2018 the trial judge ruled that the evidence was inadmissible. She ordered that the indictment be stayed and the respondent discharged. The appellant appealed to the Court of Appeal, which held that the judge was wrong to exclude the evidence. However, the Court of Appeal also found that manner in which the indictment against the respondent was framed amounted to a miscarriage of justice. It held that the prosecution constituted an abuse of process of the court and that the respondent ought not to stand trial at all. The Court of Appeal therefore dismissed the appeal. The appellant now appeals to the Board.