A distinguished Guyanese-born lawyer in New York has described as “a grave misstep” the decision by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to send a police officer to the United States to serve criminal summonses in the US by utilizing a private process server in New York.
Last month, the GPF attempted to serve two criminal summons on Brooklyn-based, Guyanese-born political activist Rickford Burke, the president of the Brooklyn-based Caribbean-Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID).
Dr. Vivian M. Williams — a lawyer, who is the president of VMW Law, a law firm with divisions in the United States and the Caribbean, and The Williams Firm, a boutique real estate firm in New York City, told Caribbean Life over the weekend that GPF’s decision is “contrary to international norms and a trespass of the sovereignty of the United States, if not authorized by the US.
“Criminal proceedings are the acts of a state, as the custodian of the sovereign authority of a country. That authority is limited to the territory of a state,” said Dr. Williams, who is also an Adjunct Professor of Business at Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, City University of New York, and has been recognized by the New York-based Marquis Who’s Who Top Executives for “dedication, achievements, and leadership in communication strategy.”
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who’s Who in America in Uniondale, New York, Marquis Who’s Who has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment.
In the context of the GPF-Burke situation, Dr. Williams, a Brooklyn resident, said to charge and prosecute someone with a crime, “a country must establish that a criminal act took place within its territory for a crime to be committed.
“It should be noted that the laws of a country cannot travel beyond its borders to attach itself to conduct abroad,” he said. “There must be some criminal conduct by the accused within the borders of the country. Therefore, the first challenge in establishing a crime committed by a person abroad is to establish that the accused engaged in some act, within the country.”
However, Dr. Williams said there are few instances in which the conduct of a person abroad legally constitutes an act within another country.
He said Internet crimes in which someone is sitting in one country and using an internet server in another country to commit a criminal act is an example.
Another example, Dr. Williams said, is where someone sits in one country and manipulates a server or Internet accounts in another.
In illustrating this with a practical question, he asked: “If a man hops on a plane after being fed poison in New York and, 24 hours after he lands in Guyana, the poison kicks in, causing his death, could Guyana charge the person who administered the poison in New York with murder?
“The answer is no, because, to establish that a crime was committed in Guyana, prosecutors must prove more than an effect in that country; they must establish a criminal act there,” Williams said.
But he said, if a local court is satisfied that a prima facie case has been made out that a criminal act occurred within its jurisdiction, then it may issue a summons or warrant for the accused.
Dr. Williams said that summons must be served upon the accused by the police for the state to proceed with prosecuting the accused.
He said the act of serving a summons is a state action that the police can only perform within the domestic territory.
“Therefore, if an accused is not within the territory s/he is deemed to be outside the reach of legal process,” the lawyer said. “The state must obtain the consent of the country where the accused is, to bring him or her within its jurisdiction or to effect service in that country.”
Under international norms, he said this is done through an extradition request.
“Consequently, the entry into the United States by a police officer from Guyana and use of a private process server to service criminal summonses on someone in the US, without the knowledge and consent of the US, is a trespass of the United States sovereignty,” Williams said.
To confirm to the norms of the international community, he warned that “Guyana must be careful not to extend its laws beyond its borders by merely citing effects within its territory.
“Instead, it should seek to capture criminal conduct that occurs within its territory,” he said. “It should also restrain itself from attempts to circumvent the requirements of an extradition request to prosecute people abroad.”
Dr. Williams further warned that ‘the eyes of the world would be upon Guyana to see how it resolves these issues.
“As an emerging significant player on the global stage, Guyana should be mindful of how it pushes the envelope,” he said, stating that the rule of law is “a complex issue that is often discussed in a simplistic manner.
“It must be viewed in the context of the real and perceived triumph of justice,” he added. “The rule of law is compromised, if the outcomes from judicial processes are unjust or are perceived to be unjust. Therefore, consideration of the rule of law in Guyana should lead us to scrutinize the justice system for break-downs.
“My view is, Guyana must work harder to repair systemic weaknesses to ensure just outcomes,” Dr. Williams said. “Sufficient attention is not given to the qualitative output of the judicial system in delivering real and perceived justice. For as long as the man on the street don’t believe the system is working for them, the rule of law is under threat.”
In addition, he said Guyana’s decision to sidestep the extradition process to serve criminal summonses in other countries is “significant,” noting that Guyana is currently fighting off threats to its territorial sovereignty by Venezuela.
“At a time when it is galvanizing global support to repel incursion by Venezuela, Guyana should be careful not to trespass other countries territorial sovereignty,” Williams cautioned.
He also noted that, with Guyana recently becoming a non-permanent member of the United Nations’ Security Council, “it should refrain from conduct that could inflame tension between and among countries.
“Extending its laws and criminal process into other countries without their knowledge and consent is a dangerous path,” he stressed. “As an emerging oil giant, Guyana is poised to be a significant global actor. As the new kid on the block, the eyes of the world are upon it.”
On Thursday, CGID said it has evidence from Guyana Police sources that Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo allegedly forced GPF to “establish the unlawful precedent” of sending a GPF officer “to commit espionage and other crimes in the US” to attempt to serve Burke with “malicious criminal summonses.”
“No magistrate in Guyana has jurisdiction outside of Guyana, let alone in the US,” CGID Director of Communications Richard Millington, an attorney and spokesman for Burke, told Caribbean Life. “The US has strict laws that prohibit such infringement of its sovereignty and austere punishment for breaches.”
GPF said Burke is wanted in Guyana on several offences, including “the excitement of hostility or ill-will on the grounds of race, under the Racial Hostility Act, sedition under the Cyber Crime Act, use of a computer system to coerce and intimidate a person, under the Cyber Crime Act, as well as seditious libel contrary to common law”.
Additionally, the police said that Burke is wanted on “seditious libel under the peace under the Summary Jurisdiction Offences Act and inciting public terror under the Criminal Law Offences Act.”
But Burke has consistently denied the allegations; and, recently, a New York Police Department (NYPD) report confirmed that, contrary to a GPF statement, Burke, was not served last month with a Guyana Police-issued court summons on charges related to extortion, sedition and inciting public terror.
“The GPF leadership, at Jagdeo’s direction, preposterously arrogated to itself some sort of extraterritorial and impossible power to police the speech and conduct of Guyanese in the US,” Millington alleged. “This is an aberration to US and international law. This outrageous abuse is also ultra vires the Guyana Constitution.
“The thought that the GPF believes it can override the US Constitution to repress the free speech rights of Guyanese in the US who criticize the PPP (incumbent People’s Progressive Party) Government’s racism and corruption, and deem it a crime under Guyanese law, is asinine and antithetical to fundamental legal theory of jurisdiction,” Millington added.
“A foundational axiom of international jurisprudence is that sovereignty of a state is inviolable,” he continued. “The PPP regime and the GPF have turned this fundamental principle of international law on its head. They now espouse a lawless doctrine that the GPF has jurisdiction wherever Bharrat Jagdeo says it does.
“They advance this foolish argument as if they are immune from the reciprocity doctrine that subjects PPP ministers from the exact, lawless exploits of any other country,” he said. “Woe be unto them if this were plausible!”
Millington said there is “incontrovertibly compelling evidence” that GPF detective, Corporal Lewis, allegedly “lied to the magistrate that Mr. Burke lives in Guyana and committed the fabricated crimes in Guyana in August 2022.
“Bharrat Jagdeo and the GPF leadership went as far as lying to and trapping the magistrate into signing the illegitimate summonses,” the lawyer alleged. “Nevertheless, it is public knowledge that Mr. Burke lives in the US. It is, therefore, appalling that it is this easy to mislead the court in Guyana.
“It is imperative for the court to commence perjury and contempt of court proceedings against Corporal 24611 Lewis, who, CGID was advised by court personnel, lied to the magistrate,” claimed Millington, stating that “violating US law to target Mr. Burke with a notice about fabricated charges from outside the jurisdiction of the US is not only illegal, but also a crime in the US, and all other countries.”
Consequently, he said “Bharrat Jagdeo and everyone else in the PPP regime and the GPF who engaged in this conspiracy to assault US sovereignty must be sanctioned.”
Millington stressed that a GPF officer “cannot operate or conduct official Government of Guyana or GPF duties in the US, or outside of the geographic boundaries of Guyana,” adding that “conducting Guyana Police surveillance of Mr. Rickford Burke’s home, and other operations in the US, violate the US Espionage Act. It is an espionage operation.”
Moreover, he said the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) makes it a crime for any person to act as an agent of, on behalf of, or in support of a foreign government, without the express permission of the US Attorney General.
Additionally, regarding notification of criminal matters, Millington said US law “expressly prescribes an extradition proceeding.”
He said this process includes presentation of the evidence against the subject to a US federal district judge.
“The GPF has zero evidence of their bogus charges,” Millington said. “The PPP Government, Bharrat Jagdeo, and the leadership of the GPF are targeting Mr. Burke because he is a fervid critic of their racism,” among other allegations.
“Consequently, they purportedly charged him in Guyana with bogus charges to repress his free speech, which is protected by the US Constitution, to try to discredit him,” he added.
Guyana’s Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, has dismissed suggestions that the court warrants allegedly served on Burke are intended to silence critics of the Ali administration.
“Nobody is charging Burke for being a critic. We have many critics against the government. Burke is being charged for committing a criminal offence, extortion,” Nandlall told the pro-government online publication, NEWSROOM.
“You can’t commit an offence against the laws of Guyana and think the law would be so impotent that we can’t try you. That you can just stay out the country… the arms of the law are very long, the process may be a slow one, but it is a sure one,” Nandlall told the publication
In a statement on Dec. 23, 2023, captioned “Rickford Burke lied”, the GPF said that it “continues to communicate with the high command of the New York Police Department in relation to Wanted Man, Rickford Burke.”
Burke, a former advisor to the late Guyana President Desmond Hoyte, through Millington, told Caribbean Life that the NYPD report “proves to the Caribbean region what CGID has been saying for years.
“The Guyana Police Force is led by dishonest people, and nothing they said must be believed. They are devious,” Millington said.
Nanlall told the online publication that he wanted to dismiss suggestions that the summons was not properly served on Burke in New York.
“Burke is accused and charged with two serious criminal offences and now served summons to appear in court so he can defend himself,” he said. “If the trial went on without him being served and denied an opportunity to defend himself and have a fair trial, those would constitute a miscarriage of justice and can lend to the allegation of authoritarianism.”
He said that the state of Guyana “is bending backwards to ensure that the defendant is made aware of the charges and the proceedings, and notified of his court date, so that he can make himself present either personally or through a representative to ensure his interest is protected”.
Nandlall told NEWSROOM that none of the arguments put forward points to any express provision in law that prohibits the service of the summons outside of Guyana.
“Has an offence been committed within the jurisdiction within Guyana? If yes, then the Guyana Court has jurisdiction to try the offence,” he said.
“If the court has jurisdiction to try the offence, then wherever the defendant is, the court has the power to bring the defendant before it,” said Nandlall, adding that the offences for which Burke was allegedly served, with two summons, are indictable offences, and a reliance on the Summary Jurisdiction Magistrate Act to demonstrate that it was wrongly done is not accurate.
