The state has won its appeal in a case involving former cabinet minister Larry Achong who was acquitted in July 2007 on a charge of cursing a Hindu priest at an anti-smelter meeting in 2006.The Appeal Court ruled Tuesday that the magistrate who accepted a no-case submission and freed Achange erred. And it ordered a new trial for the former PNM member of Parliament for Point Fortin.
On November 9, 2006 Achong attended a meeting held by residents to express their objections to a proposed Aloca aluminium smelter plant in Chatham. Witnesses testified that Achong used obscene language against pundit Ganga Ramlakhan.
Achong was charged with the alleged offence; he pleaded not guilty at his trial. His attorney Osborne Charles SC made a no-case submission and accused the priest of lying.
In his ruling on July 12, 2007, Magistrate Seemungal Ramsaran found there were inconsistencies in the evidence of Ramlakhan and arresting officer Deonarine Basdeo. Ramsaran freed Achong, stating that he “preferred that 100 guilty men be set free than one innocent man be charged”. The state appealed.
Achong had fallen out of favour with the PNM at the time and there were rumours that he was being victimized. Those charges were denied.
Acong's former Point Fortin seat is now held by Foreign Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon. His wife, Marlene Coudray, won a high-profile discrimination case against Prime Minister Patrick Manning. Manning had tried to transfer Coudray from her post of CEO of the San Fernando City Corporation following proper procedure.
In the 2007 general election Coudray was a candidate for the opposition Congress of the People (COP) in the San Fernando West constituency. She lost to the PNM's Junior Regrello.
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