High court judge, Justice Francis Belle who is presiding in the re-sentencing hearing for Bernard Coard and others on Monday declined a accede to a call made by the Prosecution to recuse himself from the chair following allegations that he was closely associated with the 13 convicted revolutionary prisoners at Richmond Hill.

There was a dramatic turn of events at the re-sentencing hearing last week Wednesday at the makeshift court set up at the Grenada Trade Centre, when the hearing was adjourned for approximately one hour after Director of Public Prosecution, Christopher Nelson, introduced to the Court a letter stamped urgent and sent via fax and email from Attorney-at-law Robert "Bobby" Clarke of Barbados.

The letter was addressed to Ianthea Leigertwood-Octave, the Chief Registrar of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and sought to challenge the suitability of the Barbados-born judge, to preside over the case.

It stated that the presiding judge"was a member of a serious political movement in Barbados, which had close affiliations with Bernard Coard's faction of the New Jewel Movement of Grenada"."I have grave doubts about the selection of the presiding judge in this matter", said Clarke, a former close advisor to executed Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop.

The letter, which was dated June 11th 2007, and copied to the Prime Ministers of Antigua/Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia, the BVI, Montserrat and the Chief Minister of Anguilla, stated that"at the time of the murder of Maurice Bishop, Jacqueline Creft, Unison Whiteman, Mr Bain and others, there was no condemnation by the movement in Barbados in which Mr. Francis Bell was involved."

According to Clarke the letter"was being written with the sole intention of justice being done transparently and it is the view that Mr. Bell should submit a letter withdrawing himself from the re-sentencing of Mr. Bernard Coard and others." The Bajan attorney also submitted an affidavit from Nelson Louison, a former support of the Bernard Coard Gang, citing the Judge as being in a compromising position.

After consultations between the judge, defence and prosecuting attorneys, the hearings were adjourned to the following day while the contents of the letter were further considered. At the time of the adjournment, attorney-at-law, Cajeton Hood, a former Permanent Secretary in Grenada, was making his submission, on behalf of his client, Lieutenant-Colonel, Ewart Layne.

The following day when the hearing resumed, Nelson told the court that having regard to the nature of the case, its historical and political content the prosecution is obligated to give consideration for the Judge to recuse himself from the hearing. He said it is not the Crown's view and certainly not his view that Justice Belle is not impartial or will not be or may not be true to his judicial oath but justice must be seen to be done.

He added that with the proliferation of these allegations throughout Grenada and the rest of the Caribbean, the prosecution needs to be careful.³The genie is out of the bottle", Nelson said, adding that it cannot be replaced.

However lead for the defense, QC Edward Fitzgerald of England told the court after viewing the document that the affidavit is false in part and there was no basis for the judge to relieve himself of the job. Fitzgerald noted that there have been several judges who dealt with the case in the past, were known to have had acquaintances with the convicts but have never been asked to recuse themselves from the matter.

He labelled some of the contents of the letter as a "blatant lie".  The English QC made specific reference to the date the letter was issued and queried why the issue about Justice Belle was not raised before the proceedings began.³We say there is a nasty smell to this letter", he remarked.

The Judge adapted a similar position to the defense and deemed the Bobby Clarke letter that was submitted to the court as full of "blatant lies." Justice Belle admitted that he knew the men but since 1983 he has had no contact with them whatsoever even though he had the opportunity to do so.

He said that he will not bow to a blatant lie and that a person who is aware of a blatant lie has committed an offence. He noted that the matter had been dealt with on the political platform as if it is a political pappy-show. State prosecutors accepted Justice Bell's explanation and withdrew their call for him to step down.

The13 convicted prisoners including former Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard and General Hudson Austin are having their death sentences reviewed on the orders of the London-based Privy Council.

They were sentenced to death in 1986 for the 1983 execution of then Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and six other people, but the Privy Council struck down the death sentence in February and ordered a re-sentencing trial.