East Kingston businessman Danhai Williams and his co-accused yesterday left the Corporate Area Residents' Magistrate Court smiling after the prosecution in the case filed a conditional nolle prosequi due to the inability to locate two key witnesses in the matter.
The nolle prosequi, which was filed by Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Lisa Palmer, means that the case has been abandoned and will only be recalled to the courts if those witnesses come forward.
Defence lawyers for the Williams and his six co-accused objected move by the prosecution, stating that it only aims to keep a case that they have been unable to develop for years going, and further keep the clients' lives on hold. Resident Magistrate Georgiana Fraser however ruled in favour of the conditional nolle prosequi. The defence was successful in requesting that the travel documents of their clients be returned to them.
One-year probe
Williams and six others Karl Kirkland, Warren Sibbles, Donovan Hill, Eugenny Porter, Wayne Nash and Dwight Dawkins were accused of defrauding the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC), of $451 million. They were charged in 2003 after a one-year probe into reports of financial irregularities in the NHDC/ Operation Pride project, an initiative in which Williams' company, Danwill Constructions, was a major player.
The case has been adjourned more than once in previous times due to the inability of the prosecution to locate the two key witnesses Gerald Tobias, a quantity surveyor and Lloyd McLean, engineer, who are said to be overseas. Both were employed to NHDC and reportedly signed off on the NHDC/ Operation Pride project.
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