Attorney arrested, detained by SOCU sues for false imprisonment

Attorney-at-Law Tamieka Clarke who was arrested and detained by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) on October 28, for advising her client to exercise his constitutional right to remain silent, has sued the State for false imprisonment.

The SOCU is an arm of the Guyana Police Force (GPF). Her client, a male, according to her, was arrested by SOCU, for computer-related fraud. In her Claim filed on Friday, Clarke is seeking more than $300,000 in damages for her wrongful arrest and the temporary seizure of her mobile phone without justification.

The $300,000 sum includes general damages of more than $100,000 each for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and breach of her constitutional rights and freedoms guaranteed under Article 40 of the Constitution of Guyana.

Besides this, she is also asking the court to declare that her arrest amounts to a breach of her constitutional rights and that as an attorney, she has a right to advise her client.

She is also claiming exemplary damages for a threat made by a SOCU officer to arrest her on October 25 and for her arrest on October 28 for attempting to pervert the course of justice on the ground of her advising her client to remain silent during questioning.

Clarke’s lawsuit listed the GPF and the Attorney General as the respondents.

Among those condemning the lawyer’s unjustified arrest were the Guyana Bar Association (GBA), the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers (GAWL), the Organization of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations (OCCBA), the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA), the Jamaican Bar Association, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and the Opposition APNU+AFC.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC informed that he had received a pre-action letter from a lawyer purporting to represent Clarke in which $50M was being demanded by her in lieu of a lawsuit for the violation of her rights, among other things.

But the sum, Nandlall pointed out, is “exorbitant” and “excessive”, given that Clarke was only arrested and detained for about 10-15 minutes. According to him, she was not detained in a cell and was only moved from the lower to the upper flat of SOCU’s headquarters.

Clarke, however, claimed she was kept in custody for almost an hour. Nandlall said that after learning of the circumstances surrounding counsel’s arrest, he “advised” that she be immediately released.

On Friday, scores of the GBA members staged a protest outside of SOCU’s Camp Street, Georgetown headquarters calling for, among other things, disciplinary action to be taken against the officer (s) who arrested their colleague and for the Police Commissioner to issue an apology to her.

Her arrest, they maintained, is a blatant disregard for the rule of law.

Among those protesting was GBA’s President Pauline Chase, who told reporters: “This is not a lawyer issue. Yes, you see lawyers out here, but this is a wider issue. It is a rule of law issue, it is a fundamental right issue… the right to counsel. The right to remain silent is ingrained; these are non-negotiable rights and it affects us all…”

The Police Force, on Friday, announced that it had completed investigations into the matter and has forwarded the file to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice. It is anticipated that the DPP’s Office will render its advice in the new week.