ECSC Upholds Attorney General’s Appeal in Salisbury Protest Matter

The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSE) has upheld an appeal by the Attorney General in the Salisbury Riot case.

50 Salisbury residents, including Parliamentary Representative Hector John were charged in 2015 following protest action staged along the Salisbury highway.

In a unanimous decision, the court of appeal ruled that high court judge Bernie Stephenson did not address the constitutional matters, when she agreed with Attorney Cara Shillingford who had challenged the decision to charge under the riot act.

Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan, who represented the Attorney General in the matter, spoke to Kairi News late Wednesday, telling reporters that the appeal went “extremely well”.

Astaphan thinks the Court of Appeal “…was unanimous in their view that the court did not…make a decision on the core constitutional submissions by both sides”.

Meanwhile Attorney for the Salisbury residents Cara Shillingford spoke to reporters outside the court on Wednesday.

Shillingford said, “We are continuing with our claim that the riot act is unconstitutional and that the constitutional rights of the Salisbury people were in fact violated”.