Attorney Glen Hanoman, who is representing the private citizens who brought the three private criminal charges against Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, says there is compelling evidence of his wrongdoings.
During an interview with this publication, Hanoman responded to remarks made by the CEO’s lawyers, dispelling allegations that his arguments in this case are politicised.
“I am a lawyer with no political affiliation. I was hired to do a job. They were all legal arguments in court but they’re trying to politicize it. Of course, the charges have ramifications politically… This is a serious criminal offence,” the attorney said.
“We’ve already investigated and we have compelling evidence that can establish the offence.”
Notwithstanding, the attorney expressed concern that Lowenfield still has access to sensitive information.
“We wanted an undertaking from the accused to the court that certain sensitive documents in his possession would be preserved because he is the custodian of those documents, like the SORs [Statement of Recount] and SOPs [Statement of Poll].”
He lamented however that “the court did not insist on that undertaking…The concerns were based on the fact that he still works at GECOM and he still has access to documents and people that we will potentially need to use against him. We still have a concern about that.”
Moreover, the lawyer explained that he had also asked for one of Lowenfield’s lawyers, Neil Boston, to recuse himself from the matter since he might be called as a prosecution witness.
“The reason why we might have to use Mr Boston as a prosecution witness is because he drafted affidavits of Mr Lowenfield that were used in the High Court proceedings and we want to tender those same affidavits in the criminal matter. In those affidavits, Mr Lownfield made certain admissions that have a bearing on the criminal matter.”
Furthermore, Hanoman related that a request was made for Lowenfield’s passport to be lodged as a condition of this bail since he has means to leave this jurisdiction. This was denied, along with the request for a substantial sum to be set for bail.
Lowenfield made his first court appearance today at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court in relation to the private criminal charges filed against him.
Lowenfield was slapped with three private criminal charges regarding conspiracy to commit fraud and breach of trust in public office.
They were filed by Josh Kanhai and Desmond Morian, private citizens.
He was granted bail in the sum of $450,000; $150,000 on each charge.
The CEO is being represented by Attorneys Nigel Hughes and Senior Counsel Neil Boston.
He is expected to make his next court appearance on August 14.
Kanhai, a member of The New Movement (TNM) party, filed a charge claiming that Lowenfield between March 5 and June 23, 2020 conspired with person(s) unknown to commit the common law offence of fraud when he submitted his Election Report dated June 23 which included figures that altered the results of the elections.
Meanwhile, Morian is contending that Lowenfield, while performing his duties as CEO of GECOM, ascertained the results of the March 2 elections “knowing the said results to be false”, the said wilful misconduct amounting to a breach of the public’s trust in the office of the CEO.
Morian subsequently filed a third charge contending that Lowenfield conspired with person or persons unknown to use Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo’s fraudulent figures to prepare a report that was submitted to GECOM Chairperson, Retired Justice Claudette Singh, back in March.
The national recount exercise shows that the PPP/C won the elections with 233,336 votes. But Lowenfield has repeatedly refused to submit his final elections report with those figures.
