Court grants another variation in Dr. Thomson Fontaine's bail to travel to South Sudan

Dr. Fontaine, who stands charged with inciting violence and obstructing justice for a riot in Roseau on February 7, 2017,  following a meeting held by Dominica’s parliamentary opposition, UWP, is on $75,000.00 bail for the alleged offenses.

At the court sitting earlier this week, August 22, 2022, the matter was expected to commence, however, acting Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Sherma Dalrymple, told the court that Trinidadian attorney, Daniel Khan, who is one of the prosecutors in the matter, was absent as a result of travel difficulties into Dominica.

On the last occasion, August 8, 202, Khan requested the earliest possible adjournment date for the matter insisting that the prosecution was prepared. Despite a plea from Dr. Fontaine’s attorney, Cara Shillingford-Marsh who stated that the two week adjournment jeopardizes her client’s employment status with the government of South Sudan, Magistrate Michael Laudat granted the prosecution’s request.

At Monday’s hearing, Shillingford-Marsh put forward an application seeking a variation in Dr. Fontaine’s bail which the acting DPP did not object to.

The defense counsel presented Dr. Fontaine’s travel itinerary to the court which showed that he will leave Dominica on August 29 and will return in December.

The application was granted and Magistrate Laudat ordered the defendant to collect his travel documents from the court on August 24.  On his return to Dominica, he is to return his travel documents and surrender himself to the court’s jurisdiction no later than December 6, 2022.

In granting the application, Magistrate Laudat informed Dr. Fontaine that these conditions must be strictly adhered to.

When Dr. Fontaine was last granted a variation in his bail in May 2022, two of his bail conditions were breached. He failed to return to Dominica on the ordered date of July 26, 2022, due to travel difficulties and he did not surrender his travel documents to the court on arrival.

Notwithstanding what was deemed a “violation of the court order”, his bail was not revoked.

The matter was adjourned to December 9, 2022.