Attorney-at-law, Derek Sylvester is denying claims made in certain quarters that he was fired by Frederick "Balla" Noel, the personal bodyguard of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell for failing to obey instructions.

Sylvester represented "Balla" for only a few days after Police charged the bodyguard in connection with a shooting incident last September that left a resident of San Souci, St. George's suffering injuries from a gun shot wound to the hand over a lover's quarrel. Well-placed legal sources told GRENADA TODAY that the lawyer is insisting that it was he who refused to continue working for Balla based on the instructions that the P.M's bodyguard was giving him in order to conduct the case.

Balla was charged with causing "Grevious Bodily Harm" to the San Souci man who was in the company of a female that is suspected to be one of the lovers of the P.M's bodyguard. A source quoted Sylvester as saying that he asked Balla to seek help from another lawyer since he could not agree to the course of action to be pursued in the case. "What I know for a fact is that Balla told Derek (Sylvester) that (Hugh) Wildman) wanted he, Derek to challenge the authority of the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions, Christopher Nelson) to file the charge against him.

"Balla was saying that Wildman wanted Nelson to produce his letter of appointment as DPP since he (Nelson) was believed to be in the post without any good standing at all. "Derek refused to do that (challenge the status of the DPP) and Balla went back and told Wildman that Derek was refusing to do it. Wildman then sent back Balla to Derek. And this is what Balla said to Derek: "Wildman wanted to know which side you (Derek) was on". According to the source, Balla informed Sylvester that Wildman was not too sure whether the said Sylvester was on the side of lawyers attached to the law firm of Ciboney Chambers.

"He (Wildman) said that when he comes around the court that he does see Derek laughing and grinning with them boys from Ciboney so he (Wildman) wanted to know if Derek was still on good terms with them", the source was quoted as saying. Derek Sylvester was once attached to Ciboney Chambers but left the law firm a few months ago to join the legal practice of his own father, Lashley Salfarlie.

Ciboney Chambers is comprised of several attorneys-at-law who are prominent members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), the main rival of the ruling New National Party (NNP) government of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell. Among them are Peter David, the elected Member of Parliament for the town of St. George and Nazim Burke, who is the current holder of the St. George North-east seat in parliament.

The Jamaican-born Wildman is a Special Prosecutor with government and also serves as Legal Advisor to Cabinet. According to the source, Sylvester became fed-up with the approach of the Balla camp and asked him to get another lawyer to handle the matter for him in court. The source said that the Balla camp then decided to hire the newly admitted Venescia Francis-Banfield to conduct the case on behalf of the P.M's bodyguard.

Legal sources confided in this newspaper that Francis-Banfield who is new to the jurisdiction might have been approached to do the job since most other lawyers on the island would be hard-pressed to take such action against the local DPP. Over the years, the Mitchell government has often used local attorney, Michael Sylvester to institute legal action against persons considered as its opponents. In recent weeks, Sylvester has not been able to attend to court matters due to ill health.