Legal proceedings filed against the Cayman Islands Attorney General and Chief Justice

(L-R) Chief Justice Anthony Smellie, Attorney General Sam Bulgin and Attorney-at-law Miss Micki Jafa Bodden

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands: Two separate legal proceedings were filed last week in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands naming the Attorney General and the Chief Justice respectively as defendants.

In the first case, the three Afghan refugees who were denied asylum in the Cayman Islands have commenced proceedings asking for an unspecified amount of damages arising out of what they claim to be their unlawful detention in prison after their arrival in the Cayman Islands in August of 2000.

The Afghanis were subjected to two separate periods of detention while they were battling for the right to political asylum in the Cayman Islands. The Grand Court intervened on both occasions, granting writs of habeas corpus to release them from custody.

The Immigration Appeals Tribunal in a decision that has subsequently been appealed by the Attorney General recently granted the three men indefinite leave to remain in the Cayman Islands.

In the second matter, a former Cayman Islands resident has filed an application for leave to apply for judicial review of a decision of the Chief Justice to deny him legal aid.

The petition as filed claims that the Legal Aid Rules (the rules made by the Chief Justice and by which the provision of legal aid is administered) go beyond the scope permitted by the statute under which the rules themselves are made, specifically the Legal Aid Law.

Radio Cayman reports that sources close to the Attorney General's Office say that the claim by the Afghan refugees will be vigorously defended. Miss Micki Jafa Bodden is the attorney of record for both plaintiffs but she has declined to comment on either of these cases. 

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