tidings
Port Paria Fuel Trading Co Ltd in Pointe-a-Pierre, off the Bay of Paris.
The first procedural session of the Commission of Inquiry into the Paria diving tragedy takes place in Port of Spain on September 7 and 8, in Tower D of the International Aquatic Center of Port of Spain.
The hearing, which is open to the public and media, will begin at 10:30 a.m. on both days.
The information was given in a notice issued by the EC secretariat on August 19.
It was first announced at a press conference at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts (SAPA) in San Fernando on July 7 that the commission will hold a procedural hearing on September 7 in Port of Spain.
The start date of the public hearings will be announced later.
At that briefing, Queen’s Counsel CoE chairman Jerome Lynch said no stone will be left unturned in the search to find out how Kazim Jeremiah Ali, Yusuf Henry, Fyzal Kurban and Rishi Nagassar died on February 25.
Ali, Henry, Kurban and Nagassar were working on a 30-inch diameter underwater pipeline belonging to the Paria Trading Company, in Pointe-a-Pierre, when they were sucked into the line.
The commission was appointed on 22 April, with Dennis Morrison, QC, as chairman/commissioner and local underwater specialist Gregory Wilson as commissioner. Morrison resigned last month for personal reasons. He was replaced by Lynch, who was sworn in by President Paula-Mae Weekes on July 6.
Lynch is a senior judge at Trott and Duncan in Bermuda, and a QC at Cloisters Chambers in London.
He said the commission has a time limit of six months from the date of its first public hearing to complete its report.
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At the end of the investigation, the commission will present its report to the President.
Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, the commission’s chief counsel, said the commission did not end when Morrison resigned and had been working diligently since April 22.
Under the Commission of Inquiry Act, the Paria Commission has the power to call witnesses to give evidence under oath. These witnesses can also be questioned by the lawyers of the other parties who appear before the commission.
Maharaj said investigative witnesses must obey the commission’s subpoenas, which are like subpoenas for witnesses issued by the Supreme Court. Section 12 of the act states that anyone who fails to heed a summons from a CoE is liable to a fine of $2,000.
“We do not believe that there will be cases where witnesses who are called will not comply with their subpoenas.”
