Volcère case transferred to judge Dodin |31 January 2012

Mr Gaswaga is in charge of the Supreme Court’s criminal division and said the case is dragging too long, preventing him from hearing urgent cases he had postponed to hear Mr Volcère’s, in which the editor is charged with attempting to prejudice Court of Appeal judge Matilda Twomey.

The judge said he has cases involving “people who are being held in custody” and others, and needs to hear or rule on them soon.

He made the decision after Mr Volcère’s lawyers sought to challenge and have a contempt of court charge withdrawn in a process Mr Gaswaga said would take more time than the lawyers, prosecution and the judge had earlier estimated the case would take to conclude.

Mr Volcère is also accused calculating to lower Mrs Twomey’s authority and showing intentional disrespect to the judicial proceedings during the Court of Appeal hearing of the Popular Democratic Movement’s petition against a ruling of the Constitutional Court.

He allegedly committed the offence on December 9 when he published an article referring to the judge Twomey and other members of the Court of Appeal panel under the heading: Dirty tactics to get David Pierre into the Assembly.