THE State has launched a multi-pronged plea to the Court of Appeal to suspend its decision which allows anyone accused of murder to apply for bail.

The court’s order has been temporarily suspended, but submissions on a longer suspension will be entertained on March 3, to allow the State to appeal Thursday’s decision to the Privy Council.

The application for the suspension was filed on Monday. It contained affidavits from the Director of Public Prosecutions, the head of the Legal Secretariat at the Office of the Attorney General and the acting permanent secretary of the Ministry of National Security, all of whom spoke to the hardships various state departments will face if there is not a longer suspension.

DPP Roger Gaspard, SC, said there would be a grave risk of injustice if the suspension were not granted. He highlighted three main points to support his plea. They included the current temporary halt on jury trials because of the pandemic; inadequate staffing levels at the DPP’s office – with only 46 available attorneys for the 13 magisterial districts, high courts and the appeal court; and inadequate infrastructure to support electronic monitoring.

This was confirmed by acting PS in the National Security Ministry Gary Joseph in his affidavit.

Joseph spoke of the strain on not only the electronic monitoring unit (EMU), but also the probation officers’ department and the Forensic Science Centre.

He said the EMU’s staffing levels were already stretched and exacerbated by the pandemic and the unit was still in its infancy stage.

He admitted it was not envisaged, in the initial stage of the programme, that electronic monitoring would be extended to “high-priority” offenders, nor did it have the proper equipment to monitor a murder accused at this time.

The cost of appropriate devices, he said, is in excess of $10,000 each, and funds would have to be allocated for this and additional staff recruited.

Additional staff will also be needed for the probation department as well as the FSC, as it would, on short notice, be required to provide various reports that might be required for bail applications.

“In the event there is an avalanche of applications, this will put additional strain on staff and financial resources which were not budgeted for in our draft estimates 2022 and in our mid-year review.”

Joseph said the FSC was now trying to meet the current demands of the High Court and the potential effect of the judgment would require buying additional DNA kits and chemicals as well as leading to accelerated training and increased hiring of staff.

In a separate affidavit, the director of the AG’s secretariat in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs, Tenille Ramkissoon, said if the court’s decision was not suspended, there was the potential for a considerable number of people filing litigation against the State for breach of their constitutional rights.

She said the Chief State Solicitor and the Solicitor General's departments – both of which handle civil litigation for the State